Death's Effect
by TheProphet765
Summary: I find myself thrown into the Mass Effect universe by Death. He sent me for a reason, and I've got to find out why.
1. The Awakening

**This is my first ****EVER ****story and I've been meaning to start it for a while. So, I hope you like.**

I watched the constant trail of red and yellow lights lead into the distance, rain sliding down the window. Waiting in a traffic jam was not the way I planned to spend my Sunday evening, not when I had an exam in the morning. But, apparently it's compulsory for us to visit my brother in university every so often.

I looked across the car to where my sister was also staring out the window wrapped up in her own thought. She moved to change the song on her I-Pod and that reminded me that mine had completed had completed a loop and now I was sitting in silence. I unlocked my I-Pod and the light lit up the whole car. I chose one of my favourite songs, Wherever You Will Go by Camino Palmero, and settled down.

My mum was currently sleeping in the passenger seat whilst my dad focused on the road. He noticed some sudden movement in front and reached for the gear stick. Out of nowhere a truck came swerving into the front of the car. The last thing I saw were two bright headlights before I blacked out.

I woke to pain and darkness. Just pain and darkness. I thought I'd died. Maybe I had. Was this Heaven? There was nothing but pitched black. No. Was this Hell? I've never believed in the afterlife. The darkness was…frustrating. I could feel my physical body but whenever I opened my eyes I just saw the same pitched black. I stood up, somehow. I don't know what I was standing on, but it was solid ground. "Hello?" I called out into the gloom. I really wasn't expecting a reply, but I seemed to be stuck in this limbo.

"HELLO." A bone chilling voice answered my call. It scared the hell out of me. Both because it surprised me and the voice was so loud. It was like a jet engine screaming at me. The hairs on the back of my head were standing on end.

"Who's that?" I just managed to get my words out.

"I AM THE WARDEN OF ALL WORLDS. THE GAURDIAN OF EACH UNIVERSE. I AM DEATH."

Shit. "Um, okay. What do you mean by all worlds? Death." I was totally freaked out now. What the hell!

"EVERY DECISION MADE BY ANY PERSON CREATES A PARALLEL WORLD. I AM THE…" he (it?) took a moment to think, if he does think. "…CARETAKER OF ALL THESE WORLDS. I EXIST TO TAKE CARE OF EVERY UNIVERSE AND IF NEEDS BE, I CAN INTERVENE AND MANIPULATE EVENTS."

"Then why do you need me? Because I truck driving into oncoming traffic is really unlikely. So. Why did you kill me?"

"YOU ARE NEEDED. NOT IN YOUR WORLD. BUT ANOTHER"

"What? So you're taking me to one of your parallel worlds?" I was getting seriously confused.

"NO." Oh great. What piece of mind blowing news was I going to learn about now? "WHEN SOMEBODY CREATES AN IDEA OF A NEW WORLD, OF A WHOLE DIFFERENT UNIVERSE AND ENOUGH PEOPLE RECOGNIZE IT. BELIEVE IT. IT MAY BECOME A REAL THING"

What. "What?"

"I BELIEVE YOU KNOW THIS WORLD. GOODBYE."

"What do you mean?! Why am I needed?" I could feel the embrace of sleep washing over. "You can't…you can't just leave me…no…no…" Before I knew it I had fallen to the floor.

I woke. I was still fairly tired but I could see. I couldn't move but I could see. I was in a chair. A dentist-type chair. And I was strapped to it. What? This day was getting weirder and weirder. Apart from the chair there was just a small table in this small, dimly lit room.

A futuristic looking door opposite from me slide opened, allowing me to see two silhouetted figures approach me from a brightly lit corridor. They were wearing familiar looking armour and were wielding strange guns. One went to take of his helmet, revealing turian. The other…wait, what? A bloody turian!

Death took me to the Mass Effect universe!

Shit.

**Well that's the first chapter so again, I hope you liked it. Reviews would be nice, and they'd definitely encourage me to get chapters out more quickly. See ya.**


	2. The Escape

**Well here's the second chapter. Hope you like.**

So Death killed me and probably my family. Took me away from my world, and put me here! In the bloody Mass Effect universe! And all he says is that I'm needed. What does that mean? Maybe I have to do something. But what does that mean?!

"Connor, unstrap him," ordered the turian, disrupting my train of thought. That revealed to me that the other person was human, judging by his name, armour and helmet shape. "Are you Joel?" The turian directed that question at me.

"Yeah," I replied, still quite tired. "How do you know my name?"

"Don't worry. Can you walk?" The turian asked me. Connor helped me out of the chair and supported me as I stood up.

"Um, yeah I think so. Who are you? What am I doing here?"

Our discussion was disrupted by an explosion sounding from with the building we were in. This was followed by gunfire and an alarm going off, blaring out a continuous wail. Connor put a finger up to his helmet, obviously picking up a radio message. We waited in silence till he took his hand back down and said, "Uvax, Raphyria and Talyon got detected and are making their way back to the ship. We'd better go too before anyone finds out about us." Turns out that Connor's Irish.

"Okay. Let's go," said the turian, "you alright to get out of here Joel?"

"Sure. What can I call you?"

"Oh, sorry about the lack of introductions. I'm Teiran Ravierex and this is Connor O'Neil. Now if you don't mind we'd better go. Okay?" With that he set of down the corridor my saviours had originally come from, with me and Connor close behind.

As we were jogging along the clean, white corridors I noticed a familiar emblem on the walls. "Are we in a Cerberus base?"

"Yep," answered Connor, "We're in one of their space stations on the edge of the Terminus systems. We discovered it had gone rogue and from the same informant we found out about you. Considering they were part of Cerberus whatever they did must've been pretty bad to have disbanded."

"Who was your informant?" I was curious now. How could've Death got information to them?

"Well it was just a message actually," the Irishman seemed happy to answer my questions. "It was from an anonymous source but the documents attached seemed legit. So we investigated."

I had so many more questions but before I could ask Teiran interrupted. "Hold up. We've got some activity round the corner." We slowed down to a halt and lined up against the wall with Teiran in front taking a peek round the corner of the corridor. "Two armoured guards with assault rifles. We'll take them out quickly and quietly. Connor and I'll take care of them but take this Carnifex just in case." He handed me a pistol. Well, it was more like a hand cannon really.

"Yeah that's fine by me," I said. "As you can see I'm not really dressed for combat." I was only wearing a pair of white shorts and t-shirt and was really starting to envy the two soldiers and their suits of full body armour.

"Okay, you got your silencer attached?" The turian asked Connor who replied with a nod. "On three. 1…2…3." They rounded the corner and I listened to their gunshots. If they weren't silenced we'd have a real problem trying to get back to the ship undetected. After just a few shots Teiran called out, "all clear." I cautiously stepped round the corner and saw my two saviours standing over a couple of dead bodies. The only dead bodies I'd ever seen. It was… horrible. They'd been alive just a few moments ago and now… now they're just lifeless bodies lying on the floor.

"You alright mate?" Asked Connor. "Looks like you've seen a ghost."

"Yep, pretty much," I was quite distraught. I wasn't used to this sort of stuff. "I've never seen a dead person before."

"Sorry mate, but it's the only way we're getting out of this place."

"And we'd better get out of this place quick," said Teiran. "The guards only know about Raphyria, Uvax and Talyon which leaves us with an open path." With that he head off with me and Connor hot on his heels.

"Teiran seems to be in a hurry to get out of here?" I asked Connor.

"Yeah well he's the leader of the squad so he doesn't really want the death of his people to be on his hands."

"At least you're giving me answers."

"Once we get out of this mess you can ask all you want."

"Okay. Why doesn't Teiran seem to care about um… who are those people on the radio? It seems like they got themselves into trouble."

"That's Raphyria, Talyon and Uvax. And yes he does care about them," replied Connor. "But they were meant to get themselves detected because it directed all the Cerberus forces away from us. He knows they can handle themselves."

"We're a minute away from the shuttle bay," Teiran called from the front. Just as he said that he stumbled through a door with me and Connor following him. I clutched my gun looking around the room. The room had a few desks and chairs in but most importantly about half a dozen Cerberus guards.

There was a brief moment of silence before Teiran shouted out. "Get down!" He dived behind a desk and I followed him, Connor went into cover on the opposite side of the room whilst the Cerberus guards also decided it was a good idea to get into cover and soon we were both exchanging gunfire. Well I wasn't. I had no armour or shielding so wasn't risking a shot over the desk. Teiran and Connor were both pinned down by the constant stream of fire and could only blindfire and couple of shots at no effect. I heard a door open and risking a peek I saw another squad enter the room. The noise made it nearly impossible to communicate with Teiran who was next to me.

I felt useless at that moment in time. But, there was a surge of energy I could feel building up inside my body. It felt like I could do something. I know what I wanted to do and I felt like I had the potential to do it. There was an aura of blue energy enveloping and surging through my body and I directed it towards the Cerberus forces before falling to the floor unconscious.

**That's it for this chapter. Hit 1k on this one and hopefully they'll get longer. If you have any ideas or suggestions please review or send me a message because I only have a vague idea of what's to come next.**


	3. The Biotic Revelation

_I was alone. Lost and alone in the dark. I couldn't feel anything, see anything, smell anything. I breathed in deeply but there wasn't anything. I began to panic, rapidly breathing with my mouth wide open but no matter how much I tried I couldn't get any oxygen. Even though I felt like I should be suffocating and dying I wasn't. I wasn't breathing anything in but I was living. Somehow .Then I noticed there was something else. A voice, calling me. There was someone calling me. They weren't here. They were somewhere else but I could hear them calling me away. Out of this place. Out of the darkness into the light…_

I opened my eyes and sat up straight, into the light. The light, however, was so bright it forced me to close my eyes. "Woah there, take your time mate." The voice was familiar. It was… Irish?

"Is that you Connor?" I slowly opened my eyes again and rubbed them, letting them adjust to the light so I could look around to see Connor sitting by my side.

"Yeah mate. Take it slow alright." I was examining my surroundings more thoroughly. I was in a clean bed with various tubes attached to me and medical equipment in the room. Of course it was all more futuristic looking as you'd expect, but generally the same sort of stuff. The room I was in was fairly small with a door and windows on one side with various people walking past. On the other side the windows greeted me with a familiar sight. A pearly blue lake, luscious green plants and flying vehicles zooming overhead. "You like the Presidium? It is beautiful," said Connor.

I drew my eyes away from the wonderful sight. "Yes it is. Can I ask where I am? Because I'm getting a strange sense of déjà vu."

"Huerta Memorial Hospital," Connor informed me. After he mentioned it I realized this was the same room Ashley/Kaiden was recovering after the Mars mission in Mass Effect 3. "Welcome to the Citadel." I looked out the window again and admired the colossal arms of the giant space station. There was no way of capturing the awe you get from just looking at it in a video game. "This your first time?" Connor asked me.

"Yep." I was so overcome with the feeling of being on this station I began to think about everything that had happened to get me here, and it all hit me. I'm on the Citadel in the Mass Effect universe because Death took me from my world by killing me and now I'm here to do a mission set by Death and he hasn't even told me what to do. It's ridiculous. I was expecting some sort of clue as to what to do but there's nothing.

"You alright mate; you've been quiet for a while?" Connor asked. It's good to know someone cares about me in this world.

"Yeah I'm just quite tired."

"Should I let you rest?"

"No, no. I really would prefer to ask some questions first."

"Sure go ahead. We've got plenty of time, no rushing." Good, I had a tonne of questions for him. In fact I was finding it hard to choose which one to start with.

"Well. What happened with me in that Cerberus base? How'd we get here?"

"I'm sure you're gonna be as shocked as me and Teiran were but it turns out you've got biotics." Wow. Connor was right. I wasn't expecting that, but I can't really remember much. "When I say biotics I mean really strong biotics. You killed half the Cerberus forces and injured most of the others. With that advantage and the fact that they were all dumbstruck we were able to take the rest of them out. You fell unconscious so we had to carry you to the ship. Luckily we were near the shuttle bay and we didn't encounter much resistance."

"Biotics? I killed someone with biotics?"

"You killed a whole bunch of people with biotics mate," Connor seemed a bit too light-hearted for this conversation. Those people are the first I've ever killed. And how do I have biotics?

"I've never killed anyone before." It was nearly too much for me seeing two dead people but now I know that I've taken the lives of a group people. "It's horrible."

"The first kill is always the worst. Sorry it had to be a blood bath."

"The first kill? I'm not planning on doing anymore killing."

"Well there was a reason why we infiltrated the base. The information we received showed that space station had a research team working on implants to enable humans the use of biotics without any previous exposure to element zero. They were apparently experimenting on unwilling test subjects to make soldiers with biotic potential. We came to rescue these test subjects but after downloading the experiments history from a database on the station, we found out you were the only survivor."

"So I'm just a successful test subject."

"They made you a soldier, not just a biotic. They improved your strength and endurance without any physical activity. As far as we can tell you won't be suffering from any side-effects and you won't need a constant supply of drugs."

I took of my shirt and stood up. Looking at a mirror I saw my face and neat, brown, mid-length hair were the same but I noticed my body was quite muscular. Not overly muscly but it looked like I might have been active in the military for years. I was never like this back home. I definitely wasn't unfit but I never planned on becoming like this. "They thought they could just change my body like this. They thought they could take people and just change them."

"That's Cerberus for you. Sick bastards." A different, flanging voice caused me to look up and I saw Teiran standing in the doorway. "You alright Joel."

"As well as you can be after killing a load of people."

"By doing that you saved the three of us. Those men were part of Cerberus. Anyone who's with Cerberus deserves a death of some sort but you did them a favour by killing quickly." Well Teiran's a bit scary. I wouldn't like to be on his hate list.

"And that's our wonderful leader, summed up in a few words," said Connor which got him a glare from Teiran. "Sorry."

"But who are you?" I directed at Teiran. "What's your squad?"

"I'm actually a Spectre, that's why I thought it'd be best to travel here directly," now he's said it I realized it would make sense. "The mission I'm on requires a squad so I recruited people with a range of abilities. Our mission is taking on the threat of the mercenary organisations in the Terminus Systems. But when we heard about the Cerberus base and the experiments conducted there we knew we were close by and had to investigate."

"Wait, you knew of the experiments they were performing? Are you gonna hand me into the Council or someone so they can look at these implants I have?"

"No no." Teiran paused. "I want to recruit you."

At that moment a shadow fell over the hospital, and the entire Presidium. In a way it reflected my mood. Looking outside I saw the five arms of the Citadel moving closer together, closing. The people outside my room start to scream and panic as I ask, "What year is it?"

"What?" questions Connor. "How don't you know the year?"

A familiar, squid-like ship flew down past the Wards towards the Presidium, accompanied by other smaller ships. "What year is it?" I asked again.

Connor answered me clearly this time as he stood up. "2183."

Shit.

* * *

**That was pretty much just a Q&A chapter to explain a few things and there's so much that's still unanswered. But things will pick up as it leads to couple of chapters full of action, and geth. **


	4. The Geth

"What is that thing?" asks Connor with a frightened look on his face. I'm speechless. I'm thrown into this new world just as Saren, Sovereign and a whole army geth attack. "Why did the Citadel close? What's going on?"

I had all the answers but I can't tell anyone. These secrets I'm holding are going to be helpful in surviving this universe but they're a real burden. I can't tell anyone without them getting suspicious and they'll probably throw me into an insane asylum if I say I'm from a different parallel world.

"I don't know," says Teiran. He wasn't showing much emotion but I could tell he was concerned. He wouldn't be a squad leader or a spectre if he panicked easily. "We'd better get back to the squad and find out what's happening. I got some clothes for you Joel, along with the hand cannon you used before. I doubt you'd want to go walking around like that." He handed me a bundle of clothes which I put on. For a turian he chose some pretty nice stuff that fit me. A simple pair of dark blue jeans, canvas plimsolls and black shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He then led the way out the door. We passed doctors and patients alike, either watching the destructive Reaper outside the window, cowering on the floor or running for the exit.

As we entered the lobby we were approached by a drell with dark green scales and blue highlighting his facial features. Teiran speaks first. "Ah, Joel. Meet Talyon Minos. He was on the Cerberus base as part of the distraction team.

We exchanged pleasantries and handshakes before Talyon asked with a voice not too dissimilar to Thane Krios', "Do you know what's happening?"

"No," says Teiran. "We've got to regroup and find out who these attackers are. But, first back to the ship to get armour and weapons." I noticed none of the squad was wearing armour. Like me they were wearing casual clothes and just had side arms on their belts. "Where's the rest of the squad?"

"Raphyria and Sartak are still on the ship but the others have gone off on shore leave."

"Radio the squad to meet at the docks," ordered Teiran. "We'd better take the stairs." The single elevator connecting the hospital with the rest the Citadel was full with panicking doctors, patients and visitors. There were too many people trying to cram into such a small space the doors weren't able to close.

I felt sorry for them. They must have been scared out of their wits by this unknown enemy that's invading their homes. I however knew exactly what was going on. Shepherd was somewhere with his squad right and was currently fighting his way to confront Saren. Thinking about it he was probably in the zero-gravity area right now.

We rushed down the stairs three at a time. By the looks of them they hadn't been used much and were more of an emergency exit for these sorts of situations. "Hey Joel," Connor asked me, breaking the silence. "How didn't you know the year?"

Oh crap. What was I going to say? Yeah I'm from a parallel universe so… No. I couldn't, definitely not yet. Ok I think I have a story. Plus, they've been waiting for an answer for a while. "I don't really remember much from before my rescue." I had decided to go with amnesia. "I can't remember anything from my life since before I woke up in the Cerberus base." Please believe me.

They all looked at me in wonder but it was Teiran who was first to speak as I held my breath. "It is possible that with all the implants that Cerberus gave you there could have been some damage to your brain." Pheew. I nearly let out a sigh of relief. "You're lucky that you aren't suffering from more serious mental issues." My lie was pretty good then. I'm not usually so lucky. "Sorry."

"Yeah sorry mate," says Connor. His sorry sounds more sincere than Teiran's. "Looking at the data we got it seemed like they kidnapped the test subjects from slums and poorer areas of Earth."

"Maybe it's best not to remember your past then," says Teiran. "You're not missing out."

"This is the door to the docks," says Talyon. As we enter I see a familiar sight. We're in the same docks that the Normandy used in Mass Effect 3. As we walk past the passenger lounge people stream past us, trying to get out.

"What is it?" asked Teiran, grabbing a nearby salarian. "Why's everyone running?" He rephrased the questions, practically shouting it into his face.

"I'm not sure. But there were gunshots and screaming." He looked terrified so Teiran let him run of with the rest of the crowd. As I listened I heard shots coming from just round the corner as the last of the civilians ran past.

"Get into cover!" ordered Teiran. He didn't need to tell me twice. I ducked behind a row of chairs in the lounge and peek out over the top to examine the attackers.

There standing in front of me were five geth all wielding assault rifles. "What are those?" asks Connor. I know they aren't a common sight in the galaxy so most people won't know what the hell these robots are.

"Shit, are those geth?" wonders Teiran. "Just stay down." We can't do much as the geth start shooting. One accurate shot and we're dead. We all keep our heads down, occasionally blind firing. I think I even got a couple of hits with my pistol.

I start to imagine if they started to advance. Unlike us they can risk it. We'd be helpless as they'd start to mow us down. But, as I think that, I notice more gunfire. Great. But wait, suddenly there was silence and I look up to see that where the geth had been standing only moments ago, they were no longer there. Taking a closer look I saw various parts and cybernetics lying on the floor. As I stood up, clutching my gun, the rest of the squad did likewise. From around the corner I heard someone call out with a female's voice, "Don't shoot."

They stepped out to reveal themselves as an asari, wearing white armour and wielding a pistol. Behind her stood a turian who looked quite like Teiran except he had light blue face marking, compared to Teiran's dark blue. "You come for your armour, brother?" Well that would explain it.

"Yep, where'd those geth come from?" questioned the squad leader.

"There are a few dropships flying around off-loading troops to various areas," said the asari. "We don't know why they're attacking."

"Okay. Joel this is Raphyria," Teiran gestured towards the asari. I recognised her name as another of the distraction team on the Cerberus space station, "and this is my brother Sartak," I shook hands with the turian.

"I'm trusting that you've got the armour and weapons ready," said Teiran.

"Right here," Sartak said as he led the way down the corridor towards various cases and boxes. "Got stuff everyone," he looked at me when he said that.

"What? Why've you got me armour?"

"I did say I rescued you to recruit you," explained Teiran. "Just put the armour on and help us stop this geth threat. I've also got a locust SMG for you. It doesn't require as much training as an assault rifle but packs more of a punch." he handed me the weapon and armour case. I opened it up to reveal a plain black suit of combat armour. "You can go your separate way afterwards if you want."

After a moment's thought I asked, "Is there somewhere I can change?" The suit had a skin tight under layer which required me to strip to my underwear.

"Follow me," said Sarkat, "there are some toilets you can change in." I followed him into the male toilets and entered a cubicle. After some struggling I emerged fully equipped with the helmet under my left arm, submachine gun in my right hand and pistol in its holster.

"You ready?" asked Connor.

"Yep," I said. "Let's do this."

**Badass ending there, hope you liked it. Thanks for the reviews so far, I'm fairly happy with them but more will definitely be welcomed. Unfortunately there's only one more week of my summer holidays left so the updating will slow down. **

**But there's still plenty of action and excitement to come so stay tuned for more.**


	5. The Fight

**I know it's been a longer wait than before but that's how it's going to be from now on. I do believe I got the first three chapters out in a week though. I hope you enjoy it.**

My helmet's HUD showed that I still had eighty per cent thanks to the ten geth that my radar showed were around me. I looked around the column I was hiding behind, shooting a few rounds of my Locust at geth trooper that took too long getting back into cover. After using this submachine gun a few times I'd grown to love it. I could hold it in one hand, aim and just hold the trigger. There was barely any recoil which allowed me as a beginner to be accurate. The bullets penetrated its armour, sending sparks flying out. It then fell to the floor, unmoving. After I had deactivated a couple of these robots I got used to it. These weren't living people, they were just a load of wires and circuits put together to create a deadly, synthetic creature. I'm not sure I'd be able to shooting an actual human, or any alien. I know I've ready killed a bunch of Cerberus guards but I passed out and now can't remember anything. But after I saw the two that Teiran and Connor killed I thought I might throw up.

Another geth sprays a few shots in my direction, causing me to get into cover and I wait for my shields to recharge. I looked out to see my attacker flying off into the distance in a mist of blue. Unfortunately the squad had split up due to shore leave and we had split up to cover multiple objectives. Sartak, as pilot, had stayed to fix the ship after it had been damaged by a geth assault; Talyon and Connor had gone to find two members of Teiran's squad: a batarian called Machat Dak'Tar and a krogan named Urdnot Uvax, who I noticed was in the same clan as Wrex and me, Raphyria and the spectre had set of to find a Paleote Loketon, a salarian.

The asari was destroying the geth with her biotics and as I watched her throw two more of the machines into a wall, where they explode into pieces into multiple pieces, I remember that I had the same ability. Of course, the last time I used biotics I fell unconscious but I did take out a whole enemy squad and that was a heat of the moment action. I decide to try it. I focus on a particular geth who was concentrating its fire on Teiran and hold out my arm. I feel an energy building up inside me and I direct the energy through my arm and towards the geth. I get a direct hit and it flies back several feet until it stops, crumpled on the floor.

"Good work Joel," shouted Raphyria. "I can teach you so much more once we're finished with this."

The more I thought about it the more I realised it would be a good idea to join Teiran and his team. I know every other self-insert author joined Shepherd as soon as they could but I have no way of getting on the Normandy and it's only a month or two till it gets attacked by the Collecter ship. So with two years till Shepherd returns I have no better choice other than to join the turian.

"Ok, that's the last of them," declares Teiran as he puts a round into the final geth. "We'd better find Paleote quickly."

We had made our way along the Presidium, following the lake, searching for the salarian. He was apparently held up in a shop with a few civilians and only had a sidearm. Without any armour he was safer staying where he was rather than fighting through an army of geth with a pistol.

As we run up a set of stairs a giant runs past, knocking Teiran back down the stairs and Raphyria onto the floor. Standing over her the geth juggernaut brandishes a shotgun. There's no time to think. I sprint forward and jump on the monster's back. It thrusts around, trying to throw me off which causes me to hold on tighter, wrapping my arms around its metallic neck. It becomes more persistent, struggling more. I become exhausted, my muscles tiring. After a very powerful twist I fall off, panting desperately on the floor. The juggernaut turns round to look at me, pointing its gun and taking aim. As I stare down the barrel of the gun I realise this is the end.

The juggernaut stands still and then, surprising me, its head spins off and it slowly sways, slightly comically, before falling on the white floor. A blue hands reaches down to me. I grab it and Raphyria pulls me up.

"What did you do to it?" I ask her.

"I punched it." As she answers me she lifts her arm, showing it glowing blue.

"I've got to learn that."

"Trust me. You'll love it," Raphyria sounds like she wouldn't mind teaching me. I'd love someone to help me improve my biotics as they'd be really useful in various situations. "Are you alright Teiran?"

"Yeah, fine thanks," he answered as he walked back up the stairs. "What happened to the juggernaut?"

"Me," said Raphyria. "But I couldn't have done it without Joel. He saved my life."

"Anyone would've done it," I replied.

"Don't put yourself down," said the asari. "You did well."

"Thanks."

"You ready to go?" asked Teiran. "Paleote's just round the corner."

As we move round the corner of a shop we are faced with a split of the corridor we were in. Seeing a patrol of geth walk by we duck down out of sight and wait for them to pass.

I'm the first one to break the silence. "Which way to Paleote?"

Teiran confirms my fears. "Left." Great. That's the way the geth went. "Come on. He's in danger."

We follow the group of geth down the corridor, leaving enough room for them not to detect us. They lead us to an open area, with a few shops to the right and the Presidium lake to the left.

"Paleote's behind that Sirta Foundation counter," Teiran points over to where a salarian is taking cover. "Open fire!"

As he shouts we open fire, drawing the geth's attention away from the lone alien. Pulling out my Locust I spray the weapon before crouching behind a parked X3M skycar. I look out and flare blue, sending a blast of my biotics at the nearest trooper, sending him into another. Raphyria sends out a singularity at the enemy and a I open fire on the three that are caught by its pull. My Locust quickly overheats and I switch to the Carnifex. Although I love the submachine gun this hand cannon is really powerful and if I'm accurate I can a geth in just a few shots.

"Watch out!" shouts Teiran. "Rocket trooper!"

I see one of the geth wield a large rocket launcher and, of course, turning to aim at me. As I dive to the side it release the trigger, sending a blaring projectile my way. The rocket hits the wall behind me causing a blast which burns through my shields and damaging my armour. I feel pain and hear nothing. My ears are ringing. Looking round I see Teiran firing and shouting something. One of the geth explodes and I witness shots hitting them from behind before they're all deactivated.

A salarian, Paleote, walks out holding a pistol with a smoking barrel. Teiran and Raphyria both exit cover and walk over to the salarian. The asari approaches me and tries to comfort me, but I can't hear her. She comes closer, examining the scorch marks caused by the explosion.

I see the skycar is leaking fuel as she looks down at the flame it's flowing towards. We both know what going to happen but I'm first to react. I bound towards Raphyria and throw her to the side as the fuel meets flame.

**Do not worry, that's not the end. There is still much more to come.**

**I know the chapters are small but I'm not good at writing for long periods of time when there are other things I need to do. It's either this or taking over a month to get out a 6k chapter. Of course if you prefer that then do tell me, I just don't want you to lose interest.**

**Well thanks for reading and reviewing. Bye.**


	6. The Unexpected Saviour

**I got this chapter out pretty quickly, but unfortunately it won't really continue that way. It's just that I really felt like satisfying your hunger and you can thank all the reviewers for that, especially the people who have constantly given me support. As you can tell from this early update these reviews really do encourage me in my writing.**

**Well here is chapter 6. Enjoy the read.**

I'm back. Back in the lair of Death. Back to the darkness and feeling of nothing. Again I'm feeling nothing, seeing nothing, hearing in the black. Well I'm not hearing anything until Death arrives, and before he didn't seem to be in a hurry. While I wait I think about what this place might actually be. At first I thought it might be hell, but that doesn't too likely. It's more like the place in between the world of the living and the dead; a bit like an airport departure lounge. I suppose it could be limbo.

I feel something enter the vicinity. I'm not alone. Cue Death's scary, knee trembling, tear bringing voice. "WELCOME BACK."

"Hi. Why am I back here?"

"YOU WERE CAUGHT IN AN EXPLOSION. YOU WERE KILLED."

Oh, right. Finding myself back here sort of distracted me trying to remember how I actually got here. That skycar was leaking fuel and it caught fire, causing it to explode. Then I woke up here. "So why am I here? Why don't you just throw me down to hell?"

"YOU ARE NEEDED."

"Yeah, you said that in our first conversion. It seems that you really need me. I died and you brought me back to life just to do a job for you. Just a tip; if you tell me what to do I might find it bit more useful and it'll help me actually do it."

"YOU WILL FIND OUT IN TIME, BUT NOT YET. NOW YOUR MUST RETURN."

"So if I die again you'll bring me back. I'm invincible."

"I CANNOT SAVE YOU ALL THE TIME. IF NEEDED I WILL FIND SOMEONE ELSE." Okay, that's cool. I'm like a proper videogame character now. I have a certain amount of lives before Death gives up on me. He hasn't given me a certain number of lives and I think I'll try not to die. Anyway, it's not a very good feeling dying.

"Thanks, I guess. You really make me feel important."

"GOODBYE."

"Bye." I start to feel sleepy, but before I can fully doze off Death leaves me with some cryptic parting words.

"YOU ARE NOT ALONE."

"…some medigel! Paleote, have you got some?!" The woman's voice is accompanied by multiple gunshots. As I open my eyes I my vision is blurred, but I can see a dark, blue face looking down at me.

"I'll check for supplies in the shops, hang on a moment! Keep those geth away from me!" Another voice replies from a dozen or so metres away.

I blink a few times and my eyes become focused. I recognized the person crouching over me as Raphyria and she notices me waking up. "Joel's waking up!" She shouts out, informing the squad of my status and then concentrates on me. "Are you alright? That explosion knocked you out cold and you've been out of it for a couple of minutes. You're severely injured and your suit's medigel supply ran out. Paleote's gone to find more from one of the shops."

I look around and examine my surroundings. I'm lying down, propped up on one of the counters of the shops that face the Presidium, with Raphyria next to me. Teiran is on the other side of the counter, trying to hold back a group of geth that are taking cover next to the lake and shooting our way. Paleote is out of sight, presumably trying to find medical supplies in one of the other shops. "What happened?" I asked Raphyria, trying to get up.

"Wow, there. You need to stay still, the explosion burned through a large section of your armour." My injury sounds pretty severe. I suppose it technically kill me. "Shortly after you fell unconscious a geth dropship offloaded a squad of troops." She paused to take a few shots with her pistol.

Teiran shouted out, giving out orders. "Raphyria, radio Connor and see if they've rendezvoused with Machat and Uvax! Paleote, are you done yet?!"

"Yep," the salarian replied. "Making my way back."

Raphyria looked down at me. "Okay, helps coming. Just hold on." She then talked on the radio, presumably to make contact with the rest of the squad. "Connor this Raphyria, come in please."

"_Copy that Raphyria. We've got Machat and Uvax. Anything we need to do? We're taking fire from the geth but they're no problem."_

"Hold your ground for the moment." While Raphyria is on the radio Paleote arrives, leaping over the counter."

"Hi Joel, I'm Paleote," the salarian holds out a hand which I shake. His skin is pale brown, with white on the palms of his hands. "Now if you don't mind turning around so I can examine your back, as it seems like that was the area that was mostly damaged." I do as he says and turn 180 degrees, trying to ignore the pain. "As I suspected, a large area of your skin is burnt. There isn't anything that I can do at the moment except put on some medigel. Hold still please." I can feel a cool gel being put onto my back and I get an instant relief to my pain.

Teiran hops over the counter, crouching next to Raphyria and shouting. "Another geth dropship inbound! They must be really pissed, if robots can have feelings." He looks up, counting their numbers. "There's at least a dozen troopers, plus two rocket troopers."

"That doesn't sound too good," said Paleote, who had finished treating me for now. "Joel's shields got short circuited and he's badly injured," I agree with him on that. "Plus I have no armour."

"I can see how that could be a problem," Teiran blind fires a few shots from his Mattock. "I'll get on the radio to Sartak. Hopefully he's finished the repairs and can pick us up. How's the rest of the squad?"

Raphyria replies, "They're all together and I told them to stay where they are. Geth are assaulting their position but with the four of them they should be fine."

Teiran gets on the radio after the asari has finished speaking. "Come in Sartak. Have you finished the repairs?"

After a moment there's a reply. _"Affirmative. Well I've still got a few tweaks and calibrations," he sounds a bit like Garrus saying that. "But the ship is ready to go if you need it."_

"Good because I need pickup ASAP. We've got injured so you'd better be quick. I'll send you our location." I really would like to get out of here.

"_Okay, see you soon." _

"Raphria, tell Connor to get to our position. They're only a couple of klicks away." The asari then relays the orders. "The two of you can help me get rid of these geth, or at least hold of till reinforcements arrive." He looked at me and Paleote when he said that. "Just stay in cover and take your time."

I sit up after a bit of pain and struggling, peaking over the top of the counter and taking out my Locust. I line up a shot, targeting a geth that has its flashlight concentrated on me. Before I can pull the trigger I'm forced to duck my head as a bullet whizzes by, impacting the wall behind me. "This is gonna be pretty hard," I said, voicing my opinions out loud.

"Don't worry, I've got something special for the geth," replied Teiran, pulling out a small cylinder off his belt. He pulls a pin out of it a throws it towards the geth. He confirms my suspicions when he shouts, "Grenade out! Get ready to fire."

1 second. 2 seconds. 3 seconds. A loud bang sounds out, along with a fiery explosion. That signals the four of us: the human, the asari, the turian and the salarian exit cover and immediately start firing. The grenade took out a small portion of the geth squad but left them in disarray and allowing us to spray in their ranks. With two pistols, an assault rifle and a submachine gun we're able to take out about half of the total geth before they start shooting back, forcing us back behind the counter. This also allows us to let our weapons cool down.

"There're half a dozen remaining," informed Paleote.

"Four," corrected Teiran as he ducks down after the three of us.

I look out over the battlefield and pick one. It's time to practise my biotics. I shoot out a flare of blue at the AI. When it gets hit a small mass effect field which, as I watch closely, rips its armour off. If I can remember correctly that fits the description of warp. I tell the others, "three now."

"_I'm approaching your position," said Sartak over the radio. "Stand by." _Out of nowhere a small ship arrives, hovering over the Presidium lake. It's in the shape of an arrowhead and, as far as I can tell, just over half the size of the SSV Normandy. I'd guess that it could be a corvette class starship.

As it lowers itself to the ground, floating stationery above the water, the four of us start shooting, taking out the remaining geth so we can get to the ship. "Feels like a reunion," said Teiran, pointing out to the left where we originally came from. There was Connor and Talyon who I recognised, along with a batarian and a krogan who I didn't.

Then Connor sees something and as he shouts, "Rocket trooper on the roof!" a large projectile flies down from somewhere above the shops. I was expecting it to go in my direction but instead it shoots towards the ship. The rocket hits the side of it and explodes, blasting off a large part of the metal plating and damaging the engine. Smoking, the corvette hovers for a moment, spinning around in the air uncontrollably. Unfortunately for me fate wasn't on my side and the ship comes crashing down, heading in the direction of me and the squad.

"Get down!" someone shouts. They didn't need to tell me twice. I run off as quickly as I can and dive to the floor. A feat made difficult by having seven other people trying to do the same thing. I can feel something large whoosh past overhead. I hear the first many explosions. Looking round over my shoulder I see a wreck screeching along the ground, slowly coming to a halt in the place I was standing just a few moments ago.

Teiran is the first to get up, standing over the rest of us who are still mostly sprawled on the floor. "Sartak?" He paused, looking at the wreckage in disbelief before running towards it shouting, "Sartak, Sartak! Are you all right? Speak to me Sartak!"

As he searches the ship, trying to find the cockpit, Raphyria approaches him. I see the asari whisper something into his and he calms down.

Drawing me away from the tragedy that befallen the turian I notice a change to the light. Looking up at the five arms of the Citadel I see them opening. Knowing what happens I ask, "Where is the Citadel Tower?"

Connor answers me. "It's about quarter of the way round the Presidium if you head right along the lake from here. You be able to see it from the roof of the shops."

"I think the big dreadnought thing headed that way," I see hundreds of ships fly through the now fully open wards and I rush off. Heading into one of the shops I go through a back door, finding a flight of stairs which I rush up. I hear people following me as I reach the final level. Pushing through a door I enter the fresh air. Looking around I look across the rooftops of the Presidium. Towering over every other building stands the Citadel Tower. Perched on top of it is Sovereign. The Reaper's deadly red laser is firing around at the various ships of the Fifth Fleet, destroying many of them while their shots impacting its shields just glance off it. Watching the sight I feel the others of the squad surround me, taking in the sight and standing in awe of the fearsome battle.

After a few minutes I notice Sovereign detach itself from the Citadel Tower. The Alliance fleet appears be doing more damage than it was. I see a familiar flying in towards the Reaper, taking a shot. It penetrates the shields and armour of Sovereign, causing a large explosion. A few more shots a taken by the fleet and finally, after a persistent struggle, the Reapers burst into many pieces. I watched one part of its tentacle sort of things crash into a ward.

"What was that thing?" asked Connor. I look around and see all of the squad had been watching the seen unfold. Even Teiran was there, standing at the back.

"We'd better find out," said the Spectre, "because it wasn't just a dreadnought."

"Are you sure you don't want to do anything with Sartak?" questioned Raphyria.

"No. This is more important." Wow, I thought. He's doing really well not to show his emotions. I could see in his eyes that he wasn't cold-hearted or anything. It doesn't look like he was holding back tears; he's probably seen a lot of death already in his career. "Come on."

* * *

The eight of us had run round a quarter of the Presidium, heading for the Citadel Tower. We didn't encounter any more geth. I'm guessing that they lost any orders from Sovereign and don't really know what to do. Plus, most of them were on the drop ships that have all been destroyed.

We enter a part of the Presidium I know from Mass Effect and approach the entrance to the lift to the Council Chambers. Teiran presses the holographic button and we wait. As we do, other people join us; only a few of the more curious, less scared aliens. They murmur a few words and by the sounds of it they're mostly rumours. A lot of them just stay silent.

I see the lift is coming down. There should've been enough time for the rescue team to help Shepherd and his squad out of the Reaper's debris, so Anderson and the human Spectre should be coming down.

The lift reaches the bottom and the doors start to open. Wait a minute. I don't even know if Shepherd is male or female. Or what class he/she is. Or whether he/she is paragon or renegade.

This is going to be interesting.

**That was the longest chapter to date by quite a lot. Well a lot by my standards. Each chapter has slowly increased on the word count and hopefully it will continue.**

**So next there's a brief meeting with Shepherd who is actually the first actual character from the ME universe along with his/her (at the moment I haven't definitely decided) squad and Anderson. Until next time. Bye.  
**


	7. The Commander

**Here is chapter 7. It's the first of a few based on the Citadel and then we're off into the main storyline because in a way it's still part of the prologue. In this chapter we'll be meeting Shepherd, twice in the chapter because the first encounter isn't really much.**

**I hope you've seen my new title page. I know its crap but I thought I'd quickly throw something together. Plus, I'm not very tech savvy. **

**Well, without further ado, here it is.**

The lift doors opened. There, in front of me, was Shepherd. The female was fully equipped with heavy armour and multiple weapons attached. She looked badly injured and had an arm around another the shoulder of a familiar face. Anderson. Looking at who else was in the lift I recognised Garrus and Ashley, all looking fairly battered and tired, along with a couple of other people who I presume were from the rescue team.

Anderson and Shepherd lead the group out through the crowd, pushing their way through the anxious, frightened, curious citizens. The numbers had increased to quite a few dozen, a mix of all different alien species. The few, more confident, people were asking questions. But they were nervous; not knowing what had happened and more importantly, what will happen. Large sections of Sovereign had crashed into various places on the Citadel. If I remember rightly not all pieces were recovered. Some were scavenged by people looking to sell it and Cerberus got their hands on some which helped create EDI. Also, there had been multiple places attacked by the geth assault.

"We need answers," said Teiran. It sounded like he was a bit angry. I'm no psychiatrist but I'm going to say it's about his brother's death. He should take a break when this is all over. "Follow me. That was Commander Shepherd, the first human Spectre. It looks like she might know what happened." We push through the crowd, all eight of us, until we're in the clear. "Shepherd!" called Teiran. We were near the embassies, overlooking the lake. "Commander Shepherd!"

She and Anderson turned round, backed by the Normandy's squad. Shepherd's helmet is off, revealing her fiery red hair and burning, bright green eyes. Even limping, with a load of cuts and bruise she looked like the most dominant, fierce presence in the group. "Who are you?" Anderson asked.

"Teiran Ravierex, Spectre of the Citadel Council. I've been out of contact from anything, and I don't know what the hell has been happening. What are bloody geth doing on the Citadel?"

Anderson replied, "We can't do this right now…" Shepherd interrupted him.

"It's alright," she directed to Anderson before saying, "Those geth attacked with that dreadnought." Here comes the revelation. "It was a Reaper."

I had to pretend to be surprised although I'm sure not everyone knows what a Reaper actually is. Those that did were left dumbstruck and silent, some let out small gasps. "They're just a myth," Raphyria responded.

"I need to get medical aid," said Shepherd. "You'll have your answers, just be patient."

* * *

Suffocating in the darkness, there was no air. I remember this place but I feel something about it that there wasn't before.

"YOU ARE NOT ALONE"

I awake. It was a dream, no, a memory. What did Death mean by I wasn't alone?

I was lying back in the same hospital bed as I was after the Cerberus base, feeling tired after waking up from surgery. They had completely fixed my back which felt as good as new. All pain was gone and I felt surprisingly refreshed. The doctors had told me that I had to stay in hospital for the next twenty four hours to let my wounds heal which I wasn't looking forward to.

Shepherd had also been in Huerta Memorial Hospital, but had left during my surgery. I'd heard that Teiran had found out about all that had happened concerning the geth and Sovereign, so subsequently the rest of the squad had. I had to listen to a whole speech about it, trying to act interested as if I hadn't heard it before. It was **EXTREMELY **boring.

Connor entered my room. Apart from Teiran he was my only visitor. I suppose that would make sense. Thinking about it Teiran's squad would be my only possible visitors, but I don't really expect them to care about me. I haven't even talked to about half of them. "How you doing mate?"

"Not going to lie, I'm pretty good," apart from the fact there is absolutely **NOTHING** to do, hospital's alright. The beds comfortable, the food's actually pretty good and my back's feeling, well, wonderful. In over a hundred and fifty years medical science and all science had advanced greatly. The fact that my burnt back can be healed after just some simple surgery is amazing. "What're you and the squad going to do now?"

"Well, our ships been destroyed but I heard the Council's got something for us. We're gonna be stuck on the Citadel for a week minimum, though. Now you've had a little taster, what are your thoughts on joining us?"

Oh, crap. I knew this question would come someday. "I have thought about a lot, and I don't have any better option. I don't have any other option so yes; if you'll have me I'll join you."

"Good, I'll have to inform Teiran. I'm sure he'd be happy to hear the news. Can I just ask one question? Where are you planning on staying once you're allowed out of here?" I hadn't thought about that at all.

"I hadn't thought about that at all. I haven't got any house, or money or possession." I really had nothing. In a nutshell my life so far in this universe has been: shooting people, getting shot at and getting knocked out.

"I thought as much," said Connor, "so I was thinking you could stay with me. I have an apartment on one of the wards which isn't very special, but it has a spare bedroom. Just to say, I'm not looking to be anything 'more than friends'; I'm not that sort of person."

"Oh no no. I'm not 'that sort of person either'. I'm feeling slightly offended that you thought I was gay." I had to copy him after he used that term.

"I'm sorry mate; I didn't mean it in that way. It's just a joke. You still haven't answered my question yet. What's it gonna be?"

"Again I'm going to have to say yes."

* * *

"Just a couple of blocks to go," directed Connor, "hopefully the lift is working 'cause otherwise we'd have walk up five flights of stairs." We'd been walking for over half an hour, with me following the Irishman, desperately hoping that his apartment was nearby. "I heard that large areas are experience power outages, but luckily Zakera Ward hasn't been hit too badly so we should be all right." It had only been two days now since the geth attack and although some places had been cleared up quickly, there were still many areas without power and badly damaged. "So I was thinking we could go out tonight. There's a cool night club quite near here and I know you won't be tired after a whole day in bed."

"Sounds good," I reply, "but tomorrow I really need to find some good shops. These clothes are the only ones I've got apart from this armour." I had had to carry my armour case for the whole trip which quite cumbersome. I managed to keep my pistol and Locust holstered on my belt which I could wear with my normal clothes. "But I don't even have any money."

"Don't worry mate, there are a few good markets in the area. In terms of money, noticed that Cerberus got you your own omni-tool. I'd guess that were quite far through their experiment process; maybe it was just a week till they woke you." I've got to thank Death for getting me into a position that I liked in this universe. I can't imagine working for someone like Cerberus, at least not without someone like Shepherd. "Teiran told me you'll get a weekly payment, going straight into an account he set up for you, now you're part of the squad."

I hold out my left arm, trying to figure out how the omni-tool actually works. I tap my wrist, where a small metallic circlet is located, and an orange, glowing hologram appears. I look through the various applications, noticing a couple of thousand credits located on the top-right of the screen. "How come I have money already?"

"Technically we are currently working; we're not on leave or something. It's just that we can't do anything until we get a new ship."

"So is the Council's getting us one?"

"Yep. I heard it's gonna be a big advancement from our previous ship. More of a frigate than a corvette."

"I'm looking forward to it. What is the rest of squad doing?"

"Same as us pretty much. Some have apartment but most are going to have to stay at hotels. The squad's been together for nearly a year now so there isn't much point, but I like staying in familiar place. It makes feel secure." We round a corner and Connor stops by a door to tap a few numbers into a holopad. "This is the place, and it looks like the powers on."

We head into a lift and after a short wait (thank god not all lifts in Mass Effect are slow) we reach the fifth floor of the tower block and enter Connor's apartment. "Nice place," I say, looking around. There's a small kitchen slash dining room slash living room acting the hub of the home. Three doors lead of from this area which I presume are the two bedrooms and bathroom. A long window looks out across the rooftops of Zakera Ward.

"Thanks," said Connor, "It isn't much but it suits its purpose well. Cheap and cheerful is the best way to describe it." He leads me left across the room through a door. "This is your room: bed, wardrobe, and desk. It's all you need to live your life." He sniggers there. I like his sense of humour. "The bathroom and toilet is right next door to here, and my room is next to the kitchen. I bought some food while you were in hospital so I think I'll be able to rustle something up by, say, six. I recommend you take a shower first. There's a towel in in the wardrobe and I also got a couple of spare changes of clothes for you." I notice two pairs of jeans and a few t-shirts just like the one Teiran got me.

"Okay, thanks. I'm sure I'll enjoy it here. See you in an hour."

"You're going to love my cooking."

"_It has been two days since the geth attack on the Citadel and the authorities are predicting that repairs will take months to fully complete…"_

Fifty seven minutes later we were sitting on the sofa watching an asari present the news on TV, while eating takeaway pizza. "Sorry I overcooked the pasta," said Connor, "I never said I was any good at cooking."

"Well you're not alone. I am absolutely shite."

"I do prefer pizza anyway; and I think you definitely wouldn't like my food."

"Why are we watching the news anyway?"

"Because there is never anything better on." He chucks the box of pizza in a bin. "Anyway, we'll be going in a few minutes. I thought we'd check out Flux," I remember that place from the game. "It's in the upper wards. We can take a cab over, it'll be quicker."

* * *

"Here it is. You can just stop here." Connor directed the driver of a skycar we were in and looked out the window of the back seat. "You ready to go?"

"Sure. What is there to do here?"

Connor opens the door and gets out, with me following him. He pays the driver with his omni-tool and starts walking through a door into the Flux. A heavy beat is being pumped around the room with people dancing to it on the dance floor whilst others are either around the bar or gambling on the various machines. "Enjoy the music, have a few beers, get to know a few people. Ladies maybe."

"Okay. I'm not really used to this sort of stuff." I'd never spent much time out in nightclubs. Especially ones full of extra-terrestrials.

"Oh, you'll get used to it. Unless Chora's Den is more to your liking." I remember what sort of people go to that 'gentlemen's club'. "But, fortunately for you, I heard it's still closed after the attacks. It might never open again." He walks up to the bar and sits down, asking me, "What're you drinking?"

"I'll just have a beer, thanks." I wasn't too keen on trying out some unknown substance.

"Ooh, adventurous." Connor's sarcasm burns through me as we take a seat on the stools at the bar. More sarcasm from me there. "I'll have a tupari." He ordered from the volus bartender and we receive our drinks. "Cheers mate."

I take a sip at my beer. It tastes just like the lager from Earth and they've even kept the same bottles. "So how is Teiran coping after losing Sartak? Were they close?"

"They were, yeah. They were together in the military and when Teiran became Spectre and was asked to create a squad his brother was his first choice." I can only pity him. I've never lost someone close to me and can't imagine how much it must be hurting him. "Sartak's funeral is tomorrow actually. I'd better go and you can come and pay your respects as well if you want. There isn't much else for you to do.

"Yeah, I think that sounds good. Where is it?"

"There's a place on the Presidium that's mostly used for the funerals of soldiers from the Council races. You know that humans are now part of the Council? That Anderson guy that we saw at the end of the Battle of the Presidium is the Councillor. It was apparently Commander Shepherd who saved the Citadel and had a say on Anderson being our representative." It seems to me that Shepherd is fully paragon. Connor looks up towards the entrance, spotting someone. "Look who it is. The women herself."

I look over and confirm Connor's spot. I see she's with Ashley. Girl's night out maybe? "We could go over and talk to her. You know, just to congratulate her. I know she's probably had enough of it but we were there." I was looking forward to properly meeting her in person.

"Yeah sure." We get out of the stools and approach Shepherd and Ashley. Connor greets them. "Commander Shepherd it's pleasure and an honour to meet you."

"Thank you," she replies quite blandly, without much excitement in her voice. She probably just came here to relax and didn't want to be disturbed much. "Sorry to disappoint you but me and my friend here are just looking for a night out without being annoyed by fans." Maybe it wasn't a good idea to talk to her.

"Sorry Shepherd," I replied to her. "We didn't mean to annoy you but we were both on the same squad with Teiran, the turian spectre, and we…"

Just then a turian shouts out from across the room in a drunken sounding voice. "Hey! Look!" He gets out of his chair and slowly approaching me, stumbling through the crowd. "It's Commander Shepherd! The first bloody human spectre." The crowd give him room but a few other turians join him, making their numbers total seven. "Now humans are part of the Council. The fragile, 'ikkle humans. You think you're soooo great, don't you?" He approaches Shepherd, towering over her.

He then makes the worst mistake of his life.

He pushes Shepherd.

**Some proper action is coming up next chapter, so stick around. Again, reviews are always appreciated.**

**Also, if you want to, you can add me on Xbox live. Just a message or friend request if you want. My gamertag is the same as my account name, TheProphet765. If you send me a message with something along the lines of 'Death's Effect' then I know why a stranger wants to be my friend.**

**So until next time, goodbye.**


	8. The Alliance

**Before you start reading I'd like to thank the current authors who's work has really inspired my writing. TheRev28, iNf3ctioNZ, claihm solais and Kraidle. I'm currently reading their current works and I suggest you do too. Especially the former two who have got to be some of the two greatest fanfiction writers to walk the earth.**

**So here it is. Chapter 8.**

Shepherd stumbled back a few steps and me, Connor and Ashley looked at her, then the turian and then back to the Commander, uncertain of how to respond correctly. Shepherd, however, did. She reassembled herself and stood up straight. "Are you ready for the consequences of your actions?" she asked plainly, while staring at the turian. He laughed. Maybe he was hammered because it didn't look like he was expecting the following events. Shepherd spoke to us this time. "You ready?" Ashley nodded firmly. I only had my suspicions of what the Spectre was about to do and it turned out I was right.

Shepherd suddenly, like a cobra, struck. She swung her right fist in a hook, impacting the left cheek of the unsuspecting turian. He fell, flew nearly, into the surrounding crowd of aliens enjoying the tension and entertainment. He knocks over a particularly menacing looking turian who produces a low growl.

All hell breaks loose. About half of all the people in Flux stream out of the exit, desperately trying not to get involved in the action taking place. The rest of the populace splits into two groups, taking part in an ensuing brawl. On one side is the people who support Shepherd. They are mostly humans and a few other council races. On the other side are those who generally dislike the human's interference into their galaxy. This consists of mostly turians, some of which were friends of the guy that provoked Shepherd.

I'm immediately approached by one of these turians and I have to dodge put the way, just as fist swings past my face. I have no experience in a fist fight so I'm definitely not in my comfort zone. I did bring my pistol but I wasn't going to risk being arrested for murder just for self-defence. As I regain my balance and face my opponent who, before I can react, strikes again. His hard, rough fists come into contact with my nose at high speed. I get knocked back, unable to feel my nose but I can sense something cool, running down onto my lips. It tastes strange, with a hint iron. I'm guessing that's my blood then.

I look up at my attacker, and he just smirks back. My biotics build up inside a charge, sprinting towards him. My shoulder impacts and he doesn't manage to move out of the way. This is unfortunate for him as when I recover and scan the area, he's crumpled in a heap on the floor. So far so good.

I wipe my nose across the back of my hand, noticing most of my blood had dried and clotted already. There wasn't any more coming out. I suppose I should thank Cerberus for these apparent super regenerative abilities. I feel like a krogan.

A pair of brawlers catches my attention. One of them, a krogan no less, obviously has the upper hand. Unfortunately he's not on my 'team' because the person who's desperately trying to protect herself is Ashley. She's trying to block all his punches but his pure strength and power is breaking through her defences and she falls to the ground.. He has his back to me so I sneak up to him, undetected. I remember a move that Raphyria used to save me so I mimicked it. Activating my biotics, I leave myself plenty of room and swing. The punch sends the krogan, a bloody krogan, flying of into the distance.

"You alright?" I asked Ashley and hold out my arm.

"Yeah thanks," she replied as she took my hand and smiled at me. As I pulled her up she asked me, "We were interrupted by that douche bag before we could properly be introduced. I'm Ashley. What's your name?"

Fortunately everyone else is focused on their own fights and ignore us. Most of the action has died down though. "Joel. Hi." We shook hands and are joined by two other people - Shepherd and Connor.

"Someone called C-Sec so this stupidity should be over soon," informed the Commander. Before she can continue a gunshot goes of a I hear a scream from across the room. A salarian falls down while clutching his chest.

"I'm gonna kill you Shepherd!" A turian stands up by the gambling machines and holding a pistol. He shoots a couple of rounds into the ceiling to declare himself to us.

"Run!" shouted Shepherd. She leads the way down the corridor and me, Connor and Ashley follow her. With no armour or shields we're vulnerable to the smallest firearm shot.

Heading down the corridor we head through a side door into the open air of the ward as a bullet impacts the wall ahead of us. Before we can continue a skycar drops down, landing right next to us. Two turians step out, wearing dark blue armoured uniforms. "Hey you're Commander Shepherd. There's a fight in Flux we were sent to check out. Did you come from that way?"

"There's a turian with a sidearm, officer," Shepherd replied to the two, now obvious, C-Sec officers. "He was aiming at me."

"Okay, stay back." They take position, standing side by side with their assault rifles pointed towards the door we came through. As it opened the turian gunmen stood by it, holding his pistol. "Drop the gun sir, or we will shoot."

"Ha ha," replied our threat. "You don't deserve to live in this world, humans." He raised his sidearm but before he could do any more his chest erupted as blood spurted out.

The turian officers relaxed his grip on the gun, "he's dead. Sorry about him Shepherd. We're not all like that."

"Obviously," said Shepherd. "Thank you for the assistance. There's probably still a fight going on inside Flux and I doubt the two of you will be able to stop it all."

"Don't worry, we've got reinforcements on the way so we should be fine. Plus, a medical team is coming to clean up this mess."

"Do you need us to come back to C-Sec to give a report?" asked Shepherd.

"Usually we would," said the turian, "but with you and your friends I'll make an exception. Just try and stay out of trouble for the rest of the night. It was nice meeting you Shepherd."

"And you," she replied. The two officers then left through the door, whilst stepping over the dead turian's pool of blood. "Well that's the most action I'm having this evening," she directed to us. "I think its best that we all head home."

"Good idea," said Connor while looking at his omni-tool. "It's pretty late. Wanna share a cab?"

"Sure," Ashley agreed. "There's a terminal over there that we can call one from."

We headed over to a holo-pad and Ashley tapped it a few times. Within seconds a skycar appeared and we piled in. Connor told the salarian driver our address and we set of. I decided to ask, "When are you going back onto the Normandy, Commander?"

"In just under a week," replied Shepherd. "Fortunately it didn't sustain much damage during the Battle of the Citadel but everyone deserves a break after weeks on board a ship. What ship are you two serving on with Teiran?" Wow, less than a week till the Normandy leaves. I can't remember exactly how long it was till the Collectors attack. I think it was about two months, maybe.

"Well," said Connor. "Ours got completely wrecked by the geth so we're pretty much grounded. So now we're waiting for the Council to get us a new one. Hopefully it won't take too long."

"How long have you been in Teiran's squad? Why did you join?" asked Ashley.

Connor spoke first. He did have the simpler of the two stories. But I actually haven't heard his yet so it's going to be new for me as well. "It's not that interesting really. Not my story at least," he looked at me when he said that and then continued. "When Teiran was first allowed a squad I was one of the first he came to. I was in an N7 squad that got disbanded after we were tricked and caught in a trap. Only me and this other guy got out alive. The Alliance blamed the two of us for the casualties as they didn't believe us when we told them the truth of what happened. The murdering bastard that killed my squad was Saren Arterius."

"That's horrible," I said. "I can't imagine how frustrating it would have been for you."

"Yeah," Connor replied. "I was feeling more than that though. There was anger, frustration and depression. I even had a bit of survivor's guilt. Me and my squad mate were stripped of our ranks and we went our separate ways. I spent about a week or so spending my days drinking. You know, the typical 'drowning out your sorrows' type of phase. Then, one day out of the blue, I was approached by Teiran. He had heard of my skills and persuaded me to join the team. Now I've been part of the squad for about a year."

"Why was there no inquiry into Saren's involvement? Surely the Alliance would have backed you as a human." asked Shepherd.

"Why do you think? They wanted to stay in the Council's good books so what could they do? Plus, there were only the two of us that saw Saren so there wasn't much evidence."

"Where were you when he attacked?" Ashley asked this time. Connor's story was really becoming more interesting with every word.

"My squad were tasked with investigating a science facility deep in the Terminus Systems because it had gone offline and we needed the data from it. There weren't any ships or messages coming through. When we got there we found Saren had already arrived before us. He said the Council sent him to get the data for themselves. Anyway, we believed him. At that time he was one of the most famous, longest serving Spectres. Our squad of five split up to back up various different machines as Saren got the data. Me and my friend, Jacob Richards, started getting suspicious when we lost contact with everyone else. It seemed like the turian had been picking them of one by one. So we left. We flew our ship back to civilisation and got word to the Alliance as soon as we could. That didn't help at all."

"I bet you were glad when you heard we'd finally killed Saren," said Shepherd.

"Yeah, I was," replied Connor. "It's been nearly a year but he got what he deserved in the end."

"I'm so sorry Connor," I told him. "It must have been horrible for you."

"Well," he replied. "Your story's pretty crazy. I'd say a lot more than mine."

"Really?" said Ashley. "If it's better than Connor's then I'm really looking forward to it."

I take a deep breath and begin. "It's pretty short, but yeah it wasn't your typical day when I joined Teiran's squad." I decide to stick to my usual story. "I sort of have amnesia because of Cerberus. The first thing I can remember of my life is waking up in a Cerberus facility. It turns out that they'd experimented on me, and a load of others. They had taken me of the streets somewhere and strapped me to a chair. They'd given me physical strength and biotics. Luckily for me I was rescued by Teiran and Connor. I had no other option. I can't remember any part of my previous life, so I joined the squad and here I am now."

"You really can't remember anything at all?" asked Ashley. I lie, nodding in reply. I wish I could talk freely about my real life but that would inevitably end badly, or even dangerously. Especially for me. "Cerberus are sick bastards. But Shepherd and I certainly messed with them while we were hunting geth. I know it wouldn't really help with what they did to you though."

"It's fine. What they did means that I can't compare this life to my previous life. This is the only one I know and I can't miss what I can't remember." That was all lies. But what can I do though.

"This is our place," interrupted Connor. The skycar comes to a halt right outside our apartment and the door opens. "It was an honour meeting you Commander, Chief." He shakes hands and steps out.

I say similar farewells but as I try and depart, Ashley sticks out her arm and grabs my shoulder, holding me back. I turned around to face her and she said, "Joel, wait." Without warning she leaned forwards and, to my complete surprise, kissed me on the lips. It was brief, with closed mouths and after just two seconds she pulled back. "That was because I forget to properly thank you for saving my life. Maybe we can see each other another time."

"Ok, sure. Here's my contact details if you want them."

"And here are mine." We exchanged details via omni-tool and I stepped out of the car. "See you." Ashley said.

"Bye." The doors of the skycar closed and it hovered a few metres from the ground before shooting of into the distance, leaving me staring after it in disbelief.

"What was that all about?" asked Connor, who had been waiting by the doors to the apartment.

I started to explain to him. "Well…"

**That was chapter 8 for you. A mix of action, plot and even romance. I hope you like what's happened because I wasn't too sure. I'm planning the story as I write and there's only a faint idea of a plan. I have a few things lined up for the future; some are only a few chapters away while other may be in a couple of months' time.**

**So school has begun piling on the pressure of bloody homework which, unfortunately, is more important than story writing. It isn't, however, more fun. The update rate, therefore, is going to get slower and it won't increase any time soon. Then there are also new releases coming up such as Assassin's Creed 3 and Halo 4 that will be taking a large portion of my time.**

**I hope you understand so just be patient. Thank you for the increasing reviews so bye bye for now.**


	9. The Date

"…He was a colleague. He was my brother. He was a friend." Teiran stood at a podium, looking over the small crowd of two dozen or so people who had gathered for Sartak's funeral. It was mostly formed of turians Sarkat had known from the military but there were also members of the squad there. It was being held on the Presidium in an area used for these services. It was mostly luscious green grass than spanned for about a hundred metres around the ring and was dotted with white, marble gravestones. In the centre there were a few benches laid out where we were sitting, facing a two metre high stack of wood. Mounted on top was the linen wrapped corpse of Sartak. The funeral didn't seem two different from the ones back on Earth as everyone was clad in black. The morning after our run in with Shepherd and Ashley, Connor and I had to quickly find an appropriate suit for me to wear.

"He always did what he was told and more. He was strong, he was…" Teiran was struggling to hold back his tears. I could see a couple of the members of the crowd experiencing the same and they had watery eyes but none as much as the turian. Losing a brother must have been so emotional and distressing for him and it was showing. Somehow, though, he managed to continue. "…brave and he persevered through the most difficult of challenges while never asking questions. He got the job done without fail."

Fifteen minutes and four speeches later, only from other members of the squad as the Ravierex family were on Palaven and unable to come, the final stages of the service had begun. A flame, carried by Teiran, ignited the pile of wood and after just a few seconds it was all up in flames. As Sartak caught fire the crowd started to get up and dissipate. Groups began to gather and soon Connor and I were joined by a familiar looking asari. "Hey Raphyria." I said.

"Joel. Are you feeling better now? I haven't seen you since you were in hospital."

"A lot better, thanks. How are you holding up? Did you know Sartak well?"

"We weren't close but I've known him for a year now. It is certainly a shame. How about you Connor?"

"Good, yeah," the Irish man replied solemnly. "Out of all the people in the squad it had to be the pilot."

"He wasn't just a pilot Connor!" Raphyria nearly shouted at Connor but kept her voice quiet and angry, respecting the situation we were in.

"I know, I know. I didn't mean it in a bad way so I'm sorry if it sounded like that. Sartak will be remembered."

"How do you think Teiran's holding up?" I asked. "It looked like he was struggling to stay control of his emotions earlier. Was he close to his brother?"

"I'm fine. Thanks for the concern." A flanging voice surprised me and I looked around to see Teiran standing ominously behind me. Standing a few inches higher than me he was quite a menacing looking figure and I, having a guess, was about 5 foot 10. "Sartak was unlucky. It could have been any of us but it was him. Now, I think its best that we just try to forget about this tragedy."

"But Teiran," said Connor. "He was your brother. We can't just forget about him."

"No." Teiran glared angrily at Connor. He looked like he might blow a fuse and, for a turian, he looked pretty red. "But it happened in the past so don't let it get to you. Alright?" With that he stormed of, looking for solitude.

Connor was about to speak but Raphyria interrupted him. "Leave it, Connor. He needs some space to cool down. He'll be back to normal in a few days but at the moment he's too emotional to think straight."

"Will he be alright to lead us when we leave in five days?" I asked, slightly nervous that maybe it will be too dangerous to go into combat in a few days because Teiran isn't in the best frame of mind.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," answered the asari. "He's tough. He's a fighter."

Talyon joined us, holding a small dish of some sort of edible substance. "Food here's nice isn't it?" We looked at him in amazement and how he could be focused on something like that in a time like this.

"How can you say that Talyon?" asked Rahpyria, taken back by his attitude.

"Yeah," said Connor. "That crap looks disgusting. What is it anyway?"

"It's a delicacy from Kahje. I'm glad I could find some 'cause it's so rare if you're not on a hanar planet. Remind me to thank Teiran for organising this."

"Any food we might like?" questioned Connor. "I'm feeling pretty peckish."

"I think I spotted some…mini burgers…or whatever you call them. If I remember correctly, you love them don't you?"

"Yes. Yes I do," the Irishman stated. "Do you want one Joel?"

"Sure…" before I could continue my omni-tool beeped, alerting me to a message I had received. "Hang on a moment." Looking at the orange hologram I open the new mail and spot that it was from Ashley.

"Who's it from?" asked Connor. He spoke again before I could answer. "Wait, wait, let me guess. Actually, there's no need. Its Ashley Williams isn't it?"

"Yep. How'd you know?"

"It's pretty obvious. The only people you've really met is us, Shepherd and Ashley. You got that omni-tool from Cerberus and I doubt they're gonna want to message you."

"Ashley Williams? Lieutenant Ashley Williams and Commander Shepherd?" Raphyria seemed quite confused and her facial expression supported that. "When did you meet them?"

Connor explained our eventful night while I read the message.

_Hey Joel,_

_I was wondering if you are free tonight for dinner. Nothing too formal but I know a nice place that serves a nice variety of food. I'm going to be busy on the Normandy for a couple of days before I leave so this is a better opportunity than any other._

_I could pick you up at six if you want. Reply to let me know you've got the message or if this isn't convenient for you._

_I hope to see you later._

_Ash xxx_

"Hey Connor. I'm going to be out this evening."

"Really?" he had finished his conversation with the other two and concentrated on my news. "You going somewhere with Ashley?"

"She invited me to dinner if you must know. Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," he acted like he didn't care. "You've really moved quickly into the world. It's like no one else is getting a chance!" Connor then walked off to, I assume, get the mini burgers that he was looking forward to.

"What just happened?" asked Talyon, looking over to Connor who was examining the buffet table and inspected some of the food.

"It looked like he was jealous," commented Raphyria. "I can understand but don't feel it was your fault Joel."

"I don't."

"I think it would be best to use the same method as Teiran and just let him cool down," the asari informed me. "He's just frustrated that you have a date after just a few days and he's not used to that. Connor's usually the one who's a party animal and goes out every night."

"Are you serious?" I asked. "I am definitely not a party animal. I wasn't expecting any date and truthfully I think it was just by chance that I got one."

"Well good luck with it Joel," said Talyon who gave me a pat on the back.

"Thanks. I don't have much experience in this scenario. Actually, I don't really have any because either I haven't had any or I just can't remember it."

"I hope it goes well anyway," Raphyria wished me well. "We could give you some tips if you want. There are a few hours to spare."

* * *

"This is the place," Ashley informed me. I had replied to her message and agreed to her plans. True to her word, she picked me up at six in a cab and about ten minutes later we had arrived at a nice looking restaurant on the Presidium and the skycar came to a halt. The two of us got out and Ashley kindly offered to pay for the ride. "It's fine," she said. "It really doesn't cost that much so don't worry about it." After a wave of her omni-tool to skycar whooshed off into the distance and Ashley and I were left at the entrance of the restaurant. We were both dressed fairly casually. She was wearing black skinny jeans, a purple top and a blue cardigan. I didn't have much to choose from so I put on a normal pair of jeans and a chequered red shirt with the sleeves rolled up which I had quickly bought earlier on.

The green letters of 'Solitude' hung over the entrance and I noticed the place was designed a bit like a garden. It had various bits of green shrubbery scattered around on a white patio. The tables were small and circular and the chairs looked like ones you might find in a garden back on Earth from my time but were all white and sturdier. An asari wearing a colourful patterned dress greets us with a too obviously fake smile. "Welcome to Solitude. Table for two?"

I look around and spot no one else. That asari has great observation skills. "Yes. Just us two."

"Great. Follow me please." She led the way through the restaurant and I noticed that about half the tables were taken and most just had couples like Ashley and I. "Would you like a table overlooking the lake?"

"Yes, thanks," replied Ashley.

The asari directed us to an open air balcony area and showed us a table which we sat at, facing opposite each other. She placed an electronic tablet-looking device on the table, "This is the menu. Take your time to choose your food and when you're ready, place your order. Someone will come over when the food's ready. Do you need anything else?"

"No, thank you. We'll be fine," I said.

"Okay, I'll leave you to it then." With that she turned on her heel and strolled off.

"What type of food does this place serve?" I asked Ashley, now that we were alone.

"Well, any really," replied Ashley, looking down at the menu. "There's nearly every type of dish from every species: krogan, turian, asari and, of course, human. You probably want to stick to your safety zone unless you want to risk swelling up as big as an elcor. Can you even remember what foods you like?"

"Just about," I replied. "I'm sure pizza or pasta would do. Can I have a look?"

"Yeah, sure," she passed me the menu and as I grabbed it, our fingers touched. I looked up at her and our eyes then met. Ashley smiled and then the moment passed as I took the data pad, blushing, and, using the touch screen, scrolled through the various choices of human dishes.

"This burger looks nice," I commented as I examined the picture of my food choice. It had a juicy, chucky looking bit of meat and green salad in between a plump white roll. There was a side of chips to go with it.

"I was thinking about the lasagne," Ashley informed me. "Do you want a bottle of wine to share?"

"Sure. Should we place the order?"

"Yeah, go for it." I tapped the appropriate sections of the screen and soon the food was on the way.

As we waited a smartly dressed salarian appeared next to us and, using a lighter, lit the two candles on our table. "Thanks," I said to him as he finished his job and left us together. "So you're going to be busy over the next few days?"

"Yes. In three days the Normandy is leaving and I have to report to the dock tomorrow to help out with various jobs. So I'll be hauling crates and what not all day and I can't be sure when I'll have any time off so if there had to be a time to do this, it had to be tonight."

"Why did there have to be a date, anyway?" I was slightly confused as to why she even ever asked me out.

"Firstly, you did save my life and I've been left with a big debt that a thank you can't pay off. Secondly, there's nothing complicated about you that I have to worry about. Well, apart from amnesia there isn't anything," I laughed when she said that. "Of course though, you are a very handsome man and you've been through a lot."

"Thank you." There wasn't anything else I could really say. "Maybe it was a good thing Cerberus kidnapped me then."

"Maybe it was." She giggled at my joke. I must say it was a very cute giggle that seemed to light up her whole face. "Looks like the food is here!"

I spot a turian bearing two dishes and, after he places them on the table, poured a bottle of red wine handed to him by the salarian waiter. "Enjoy your food," he simply said in a low voice.

I cut a piece of burger of and shoved it in my mouth, realising it wasn't very graceful bearing in mind I was on a date. "Oh my god," I remarked as I swallowed the last bit of meat. "That's so good!"

"It sounds like you haven't eaten for a year!" said Ashley, as she cut a small section of her lasagne.

"Nothing as good as this! Last night I had to have takeaway pizza because Connor is incapable of cooking the simplest food. Of course, I'm not saying that I'm any good either."

"So you're living with Connor?" she asked.

"Yep. He was kind enough to offer me a room in his apartment for the few days we're staying on the Citadel. Connor has been the only person on Teiran's squad I've really connected with."

"You've not really been with them for that long have you?"

"No, you're right. I haven't even talked to half of them if I think about it."

"Where are you going once you leave the Citadel?" Ashley questioned me while we ate. We were both about half way through our meals.

"Apparently Teiran has been tasked with taking care of the mercenary groups in the Terminus systems. It sounds like a pretty tough job and that's why he created the squad."

"I'm not saying that you can't, but a single squad against the thousands mercenaries seems like an impossible task. I'm just going to say good luck. I don't think that there's ever going to be a stop to them."

"Thanks for the encouragement!" I said sarcastically. I did actually believe Ashley. It was going to be tough. I down my glass of wine and cringe slightly at the taste of it. "I realize now that I have never had wine before."

"Seriously!"

"Yeah. It tastes, alright. I can get used to it." I finish the last bit of my burger and lay down my knife and fork on my clear plate. "Where are you going on the Normandy?"

"I heard we're just going to round up remaining geth around the edges of the Terminus systems. It sounds pretty crappy compared to hunting Saren round the corners of the galaxy."

"Be careful out there." I knew full well what would happen in a couple of months but if I were to try and change what happened it might screw up the whole universe.

"Don't worry. I will." Ashley also finished her dish and pushed it forward. "Pheeew. That was filling. I don't have any room for anything else, but don't feel like you can't have a dessert."

"I think another bite would make me burst. Should we pay?"

"Yeah, go for it. I was the one to invite you so let me pay."

I grab the menu before she can. "No no. You paid for the cab earlier so it's my turn. It's not like I'm low on money. I haven't bought much yet and I get well paid for working with a spectre." I swipe my omni-tool and notice my balance fall to 14,674.

"Do you want to get a drink somewhere? You didn't like the wine so you deserve something nicer."

"If you're sure. Should we go now?"

"Why not?" we both got out of our seats and left the restaurant, saying our thank you and farewells. The rest of the evening was rushed. All I could remember is a skycar trip and drinking. A LOT of drinking.

* * *

I woke up with splitting headache and slowly sat up, trying not to move too quickly. I pull a duvet of me and look around, confused by my unfamiliar surroundings. I'm on a small double bed in a medium sized bedroom. I see a clock on the bedside table next to me and notice that it's 11:34 am. I'm not completely sure what happened last night and I had no idea where I was. As I start to properly wake up I hear a shower on in the room next door and it soon stops. The doors slide open to reveal Ashley, with wet, dripping hair and a white towel covering her body. "Morning sleepy head," she greeted me as she through me a bundle of my clothes causing me to realise that I was just wearing boxers.

"What happened last night?" I asked as I hastily put my clothes on.

Ashley walked through another door and called out, "We were drinking in a club and you had a bit too much so I thought it would be sensible to take you home. But you insisted in coming here."

I was seriously confused now so, fully dressed , followed Ashley through the door into a kitchen area where she was getting some food and putting it on a counter. "Can you be clearer?"

I look out the window across the many rooftops of the ward. The view was similar to at Connor's apartment. I spot a glint in the distance, behind a slope while Ashley was answering my question. "Well, when we got home I…"

My biotics acted quicker than anything else and I throw up a shield of blue energy. I had recognised the glint as scope. A sniper scope. My biotic barrier crackled and failed after something small and powerful had shattered the glass window and impacted it. Reacting quickly, I dove behind the counter crouched down next to Ashley who had a look of shock on her face.

**Chapter 9 done. I always like finishing chapters on cliff-hangers as you might be able to tell. Not too long till we leave the Citadel and it should become full of action. **

**Not much to say really. If you have any questions, queries or requests feel free to message me and reviews would be much appreciated. I'll see you with chapter 10.**


	10. The Morning After

"There's a sniper on the opposite rooftop. He's about thirty feet away," I informed Ashley while keeping my head down out of the line of sight of the gunman. "I managed to throw up a biotic barrier just in time but he's still there." Ashley just opened one of the floor level cupboards and pulled out a pistol. "Why the hell do you have a gun in your kitchen?"

"For these sorts of situations," she straightforwardly replied. Without any warning she fired three shots over the counter. Because she was still just wearing a towel, it was an odd sight. "I need to put some clothes on and then we're getting out of here. Can you put another barrier up? We just need to get back to my bedroom."

"I was sleeping in your bed?" I was starting to really want to know what happened last night. But in this life or death situation it isn't the best time.

"Yes. Now can you just do it? Whenever you're ready."

"Okay." I stood up quickly and activated my biotics, a blue buzz of energy engulfing my body. Within a second I had created a barrier. I tried to stretch it to cover the whole window but I heard a gunshot before I could. Another sniper round was drilled in my direction but was stopped just two metres in front of me by the shield, and destroying it. Now that I was vulnerable I felt like a deer in the headlights. Before I could react, Ashley stood up and aimed her pistol. Before I could blink she had fired a few rounds at our assailant. There was no scream but instead just quiet.

"Got him," she said, breaking the silence.

"How did you do that, with a pistol, from this sort of range?"

"Practise," she replied to me. I know that she's an expert gunslinger but seeing her skills in action is awe inspiring. She then walked off into her room to get changed, and leaving me alone. I approached the broken window, treading carefully around the broken glass on the floor, and peered down towards the street. We were on the seventh floor but I could make out the scene unfolding below me.

The entrance to Ashley's apartment was located on a quite alleyway. A group of four humans approached the door but were stopped by a turian. Suddenly, one of the humans pulled out a pistol and, using a silencer, shot him. Stepping over the dead body, the four men entered the building. "Ashley!" I called out, starting to panic. "Ashley, we need to go!"

She entered the room, dressed in some simple clothes. "What is it?"

"There're four armed people who just entered the building. I'm guessing they were sent to finish the job. We really need to get out of here."

"My equipment's all at the docks so I don't ever need to come back here, and it's really not going to be safe." She tossed me another pistol and prepped hers. "You might need this. There's a balcony we can used to get onto one of the other roofs and then we'll find our way down."

As she made her way out I interrupted her," Wait! I have an idea to slow them down." I remembered something used in a film I'd seen back on Earth, back in my own time. Grabbing a few strips of kitchen roll, I then shoved it into a toaster and. I was lucky that these items still even existed. I then realised a flaw to my plan. There was no way that these houses had gas supplies. "Have you got any gas?" As I asked that I realised how weird it sounded.

"I have a spare gas tank, yeah." What are the chances of that?

"Great! Can you get it and let it leak?"

I could see that she was beginning to understand my plan and she ran off, return with a heavy looking container.

"Can I just ask, why do you have a gas canister?" It was a little weird, seeming as I thought gas was a rarely used substance.

"Same reason as the gun," she replied. "In case I'm in these sorts of situations. I don't really like toast but I have a toaster. I never really need gas but I have some anyway." She then switched on the gas after placing it on the floor and, as I turned on the toaster, aggressive knocking came from the front door. "We'd better go," said Ashley as she headed off with me following, not wanting to be caught in the coming explosion. We both climbed through the window of a living area and made our way onto a balcony. About ten seconds later the structure shook as we leaped across metre long gap onto a rooftop. Looking back I saw plume of smoke rising from where we'd been just a few moments earlier. I know the explosion wasn't that great but it would have destroyed the room and possibly injured the hitmen that are after us. I have to thank the writers of the Bourne films for giving me that idea.

A figure staggered out onto the balcony, chocking and coughing in the smoke. Spotting us, the badly burnt human shouted out to his colleagues, "They're over here! On the…" Before he could say another word, Ashley had put a hole in between his eyes.

"Come on," said Ashley and we sprinted of along the dusty roof. A shot whizzed past my ear and another ricocheted of a ventilation shaft and forcing me to slide behind it while Ashley did the same. Looking back, I saw our pursuers; the two of them were chasing us. One of them must have been killed in the explosion. They shot a few rounds and I pulled my head back in. Ashley returned a few shots but I was hesitant. I hadn't shot a living person before, only geth who were robots but these people were human. They were doing this because it's their job. Maybe they didn't deserve to be killed. But they were attacking me so what could I do?

Someone grabbed me from behind, holding on tight to my neck. After the initial shock of the attack, I regained my senses. I tried my best to throw him off me but he was clinging with a strong determination but he was like a boa constrictor and I was finding it hard to get any breath. After a long struggle, I swung around hard, and my attacker was whacked into the side of the vent. I looked round at him and swung a punch his way while he was regaining his balance. My hit was more powerful than I thought and he staggered back a few steps, not completely aware of his surroundings, and fell down the edge of the building. Ashley ran up to me as I caught my breath. "Are you alright? I hope that's the last of them. I killed the other guy but his friend must've sneaked around to attack you." She took a few steps forward and peered over edge. "He landed on a lower edge. It looks like he's still breathing. With that she hopped down and I followed. The distance was only one floor but the way he fell on his back must have been seriously damaging.

Ashley was kneeling over the battered man, intimidating and interrogating him. "Who do you work for? What do you want?" In reply the man spat in her face which got him fist across his cheek in return. "Tell me!" She pulled him up by the collar and stared angrily at him. "Tell me!" Ashley screamed at him. It was quite scary seeing her act like this. The man made a mistake and he laughed, a gurgling sound came from his mouth as he spurted out blood. "Fuck you!" Ashley punched him hard and fell limp, not breathing. She then threw him back onto the floor. "Douche." She then pulled open the jacket he was wearing and searched the pockets. Examining what looked like a wallet she pulled out a card and exclaimed, "Shit."

I approached her. "What is it?" Looking down, as she was still kneeling, I looked at the, what turned out to be an identification card, I saw a familiar emblem. "Cerberus?! What the fuck do they want?"

"You, I'm guessing," she got up off the ground. "They either want you back. Or they want you dead. You did cost them a lot of money so they don't want it going to waste; and they especially don't want you working for someone else."

"What do we do now?" I was seriously scared. Another Cerberus assassin could be waiting round a corner to kill me, and I only escaped just now mostly through luck.

"We can't go back to my apartment. Most of it is destroyed and Cerberus knows where it is, so it's unsafe. Follow me and I'll get you somewhere safe." She began to climb down a fire escape onto the street below. "We need to get a cab. Let's try the main street." We stepped out of a dark alley into the artificial light of a wide market street, lined with shop counters selling various produce to the bustling crowd of an endless stream of people. Ashley took the lead, gently pushing through the mix of humans, turians, asari, salarians and nearly every other species, while I followed in the space she left behind her.

Another tall human man walked past me and he handed me off on the shoulder. He continued strolling purposely by as I stopped, feeling a bit ill. I started feeling hot and started sweating and breathing heavily. I looked around. People were looking at me. Staring. Judging. I couldn't take it. There were too many people here. I had to get out. Someone grabbed my shoulder and that was it. I started running. I was shoving people over and they were shouting. I could see their faces screaming at me, with demonic expressions, but I couldn't hear anything.

I was out in the open, away from everyone and I kept running. I looked up at the sky. It was red. Blood red. It's glow painted the walls of the buildings the same colour and I knew something was wrong. Someone was shouting my name, so I had to escape. I had to get away so I kept running. I turned down a narrow alley. The walls were bleeding dark red blood and they started getting closer as I ran. I was hard to breath and my legs stopped working. I fell to the floor, bathed a puddle of red. A shadowy figure stood over me.

"Joel, are you alright?" I recognised the voice. Ashley. "What happened to you?" I opened my eyes as she pulled me up. There was no blood, no red sky.

"What happened?" I've already woken up feeling confused today so I wasn't in the best of moods.

"I actually have no idea. You just started running and I had to follow you to make sure no harm came to you." She then pulled me up but, half way off the ground, I threw up. I managed to aim away from us and Ashley got me to my feet. "Woah, are you alright."

"Could be better," I replied.

"Are you okay to move? We need to get you out of here."

"Yeah, let's go." I had my arm around Ashley's shoulder and she supported me as we moved out of the alley. Then I remembered something.

"Someone bumped into me earlier," I informed Ashley. "Afterwards I felt a scratch on my shoulder." I showed Ashley the cut. "I'm guessing that it was a Cerberus officer."

"Why would they drug you though? It doesn't make sense."

"I don't know." We had continued walking. "Maybe they were just trying to get me alone but couldn't catch up with me."

"Officer!" We had entered a small, secluded courtyard and Ashley called out to two human C-Sec officers who happened to be there by an unmarked skycar. "I'm glad we've found you. There are people trying to kill us!"

"Really?" said one of them. "Who'd want to do that?" The officers had a rough look and sound to them, which wasn't very comforting. In fact, I think I even recognised one from somewhere.

"It doesn't matter," replied Ashley. "Can you just help us get to the Alliance Embassy? I need to speak to the councillor or someone as soon as possible."

"Oh, sure, sure," said the officer as he approached Ashley. Without warning, he swung his fist round with an immense amount of power, throwing Ashley onto the floor, unconscious. He then turned to face me and I knew where I had seen him before; he was the man that had barged past and drugged me.

I was backed against the wall by the two threatening men. "Hello." I coolly greeted them. "Are you alright? That was a bit mean what you did to her."

"Enough!" shouted one of them; silencing my remarks. "Grab him!"

One of them charged me and I dodged to the side while the other closed down on me. He grabbed my arm and tried to shake him off but he held on tight. The other Cerberus operative took a hold of my neck and I struggled to break free. As I lost energy they began to overwhelm me. I activated my biotics and, without any control, blasted out a load of energy, flinging off the two men. I saw they weren't out cold and were beginning to get back up. Before I could start running, however, the effects of the drug were still in my body. I couldn't hold back and, leaning over, I threw up again. A puddle of my waste had gathered on the floor and I tried to spit the remains out of my mouth.

With all my energy sapped, I was helpless when the two operatives attacked me again. They threw me into the back of their skycar and clamped a pair of handcuffs on me. Flying off, they left the courtyard empty, apart from an unconsciousness Ashley Williams and large puddle of puke.

**And that is chapter 10. I'm sure there are mistakes in here but I rushed to get this out because I know I haven't updated for the few weeks. This rate may be the norm though, so I'm afraid you'll have to get used to it.**

**Again, I you have ideas, requests or recommendations please don't hesitate to message and reviews would be much appreciated. **


	11. The Mystery

"HUUURGGHHH!" I threw up for the fifth time, completely ruining the interior of the Cerberus skycar. The mix of the rocky high speed driving and still feeling the effects of the drugging caused me to not be in the best of health.

"Do you think we can slow down yet?" asked a brown haired operative to his blonde partner who was driving. "I think the car's about to overflow with his puke but he really should be getting better soon." I reply to his comment I hurled again; trying to aim into the front seats. Unfortunately there wasn't left to come up.

"I'm not sure if it's safe yet," he replied while shaking his leg to get my puke off it. "Someone could have followed us."

"Fine, fine. But when we start drowning don't come running to me."

"You'll have to swim," I managed to get a few words out before I threw up once again, nearly choking on it.

"So you're a funny one, hey?" said the driver. "Shut up."

"We're here anyway," informed the other operative. "It's for the best as well. This smell's making me want puke. Look, there's Richards." He pointed out the windscreen and slowly shuffled my way along the back seat to look out the window. I saw a man wearing a smart suit, surrounded by four armoured Cerberus soldiers on a flat, open rooftop with only a few vents dotted around it. As we descended we entered the shadows cast by the taller buildings of the ward.

The skycar came to a stop and my two escorts exited. The driver opened the back door and grabbed me by the collar, throwing me out onto the dusty floor. He pulled me up and then he and his brown haired friend dragged me along and presented me to Richards whose height granted him a menacing figure. "Ah," he said. "Subject D-17. It's been too long."

"And who exactly are you?" I glared up at while trying to control myself and not throwing up and spoiling his amazingly shiny shoes. On second thoughts, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. "Have we met before?"

"Well, sort of," he replied. "I'm in charge of the cell that developed you. Call me Richards." He gave me a sparkling white smile. His teeth were abnormally white. "Of course, maybe I should just call you Joel as you're no longer part of my project. But now that's going change."

"What do you want with me?"

"You cost us a lot of money. Billions of credits were spent and out of dozens of other subjects, only lucky you survived."

"Lucky, lucky me," I repeated.

"Yes," he gave me a smirk. "And we're not going to waste any more of our money so, one way or another, you're coming with me."

"Sorry about this," I said to him.

"Sorry about what?" he asked.

In response I threw up, completely ruining his shoes. Coughing, I said, "I really was trying to hold it in. You might want to try using another drug next time you kidnap someone like this."

"You fucking prick!" he revealed his dark side after his previously calm state. He then pulled me up by the collar and punched me hard around the face so I down onto floor once more.

"Ow," I said and, just after, a loud shot rang out; echoing across the rooftop. One of the Cerberus guards was blast back as blood sprayed from his chest.

"Snipers! On the top floors!" shouted another and they opened fire.

"Help me get him inside," Richards gestured to me as another operative, the same one who had been driving the skycar, came over and the two of them dragged me over to door. Bullets flew overhead as the opened it. They then guided me down a flight of stairs and into a dimly lit, small utility room. "Stay here and keep an eye on him," ordered Richards to the driver. "I'm going to sort out this mess and get help." He then rushed off rather anxiously.

"So," I said, breaking an awkward silence as I sat on a chair in the corner of the room. "You alright?" The driver just glared at me suspiciously. "You're a bit stupid though, aren't you?"

He approached me and said, "Excuse me?" I flared blue and, a moment later, I left the room alone.

I head for the stairwell and descended, trying to get away from the Cerberus men on the roof. I wasn't even sure who they were fighting. The building I was in seemed to an abandoned office complex and, after a draining trip to the ground floor, I had to dive out of sight behind a column. In an open reception area there was a small fire fight going on between a pair of Cerberus operatives and a four other men dressed in unmarked black armour. I weren't sure who they were working for but I could see they were winning as none of their people had been killed yet.

I knew I couldn't risk fighting them but I saw, as the last Cerberus man fell, they retreated through the building as the main, front door slid open. "This is C-Sec, please put down your weapons!" In the doorway stoop a squad of heavily armoured officers with weapons at the ready.

I decided to come out of my hiding place because I didn't want any trouble and I seriously needed someone friendly to help me. "Oh, hi," I greeted them.

One officer went onto the radio and said, "All units stand down. We've found him." He then took off him helmet and approached me. "Joel, are you alright? I'm Inspector Vetrax. C-Sec was called to help search for you as soon as Lieutenant Williams reported Cerberus' attack."

"Yeah, I'm good regarding what's been happening. What's an inspector doing in the middle of a firefight?"

"I was leading the search for you and besides, I miss the action that I got into during my early years and I was always a good shot. I hope I don't too full of myself. Anyway, we'd better get you to the station as soon as we can."

"Sir!" called out another man. "I've got a live one. He's badly injured but, get this, he's not Cerberus."

The inspector and I ran over to a human who was wearing the full black armour His helmet was off revealing a jagged scar etched along his right cheek. "Speak!" ordered Vetrax. "Who are you? Why were you here?"

This reminded me of Ashley's earlier interrogation and the man laughed. "We were here for you." He wasn't talking to the turian, but was looking directly at me and he started shaking violently. "The truth is rising. Be ready." He then completely stopped breathing and moving, leaving the two of us in utter confusion.

I looked down at the unmoving body. "What the hell?"

"Did you see what happened to him?" asked Inspector Vetrax. "There's a whole squad of dead Cerberus men here so it can't have been just him that did it."

"No," I replied. "There was a group of them. They all had the same armour but ran away right before you arrived. How did you find me anyway?"

"We got a report of gunfire at this location after Lieutenant Williams called in. The whole of C-Sec was ordered to keep an eye out for you."

"Do you have men on the surrounding buildings?"

"No. All units are on the ground floor and streets. Why do you ask?"

"There were snipers on the opposite building who started shooting. I thought those were your people at first when you first arrived. But, apparently they were not. I'm guessing they were with this guy." I pointed at the dead person who we'd been interrogating.

"He said they were there for you. They would've succeeded if we didn't arrive and they'd have taken you." The inspector had pieced the clues together and I nodded in agreement. "Okay, let get to the station. We've called the spectre, Teiran Ravierex, so you can talk to him when we've arrived. You're no injured are you?" I shook my head. The drug had completely worn of so I was sure I wouldn't be throwing up again anytime soon. "Good. Come on then. Follow me."

We proceeded outside into a sparsely populated street and I was led to a skycar with C-Sec markings on it. I sat in the back seat with the captain next to me and another officer driving. The trip was all in silence until we landed. As I stepped out I recognised the place from the first Mass Effect game. It was the C-Sec academy near where Shepherd first met Wrex. I followed the inspector upstairs to a waiting area with a few people standing around or sitting. "Can you just take a seat for a moment, Joel?" requested Vetrax. "I'll be back in a second." He then strolled of, leaving me alone in the blue walled room.

It didn't take long before a familiar flanging voice called out my name behind me. "Joel. There you are. It's good that you're safe." Teiran rushed over to me and I stood up to greet him. He shook my hand a patted me on the back. "How are you?"

"To be honest, I have had better days."

"I sure you have," he said, laughing. "I believe you have already met Lieutenant Williams." He stepped to the side, revealing a rather battered looking Ashley.

"Hi," she said rather weakly. Part the left side of her face was badly bruised.

"That Cerberus operative threw quite a punch, didn't he," I commented.

"That he did," she replied. "One hit and I was out cold. I was so stupid though. I knew that they were coming for you but I didn't see through their disguise."

"Listen. It's not your fault," I exclaimed. "They had, and probably still have, dozens of people trying to get me and they're extremely well organised. Anyway, it seems that they're not all I need to be worried about."

"What do you mean?" asked Teiran, giving me concerned look.

"It's not just Cerberus that wants me. We should talk to Inspector Vetrax," I suggested.

After five minutes, Ashley, Teiran and I were sat on one side of a desk in a small, cramped office, with Vetrax on the other side concentrating hard on his computer screen. He occasionally tapped away at the holographic keyboard while the rest of us patiently waited in silence. As I shifted in my seat the inspector finally spoke up. "So Joel," he said, glancing up at me. "Can you tell me anything else about the unidentified men who were attacking Cerberus?"

"Nothing much more than before," I started. "Like I've said, they all had black armour without any markings or insignia." I tried with little success to remember any more details. "They were well armed and organised. It seems that they must've planned this so I'm guessing they would've hacked into Cerberus communications or had someone inside to feed them information."

"So they're big and dangerous," summarised Teiran. "Didn't I hear that there was one of them left behind after the fight? What did he say?"

"Firstly," responded Vetrax. "That they were there for Joel."

"Yep," I said. "Cerberus and now these guys. I'm really feeling quite popular now."

"What else did he say?" asked Teiran.

"Not much but it was all very cryptic," replied the inspector. "The truth is rising. Be ready." He quoted perfectly the last words that the scared man had said before dying. "Does that mean anything to you?"

"No," Ashley and Teiran synchronised their reply.

"That man is dead now so we took him in to be examined. He hasn't been identified yet and it doesn't look he ever will. His armour is of a design unseen before and I requested help from customs. They haven't reported any imports of weapons or armour and there are no sightings of these 'truth men' before now."

"So there's nothing you can do?" I asked.

Vetrax sighed heavily before replying, "No. There's is very little. We'll keep an eye on things if more events transpire. But, unless you have any suggestions, there is nothing."

"We're leaving the Citadel in a few days," Teiran informed the inspector. "Is that alright or is this investigation going to cause a delay? I'm aware that C-Sec has many procedures that take a long time and usually come to no good conclusion."

"Well I'm flattered by your faith in us and I have to admit that there isn't much of an investigation. But it's not just the question of if it's alright to go, but whether it's safe."

"And if we just stay on the Citadel they'll be able to track us, track me," I say. "If we leave though, they might not be able to find us as easily."

"True," agreed Teiran. "Is there anything more that you need us for inspector?"

"Um, no," he replied. "You can go now. If we find out anything else, I'll be sure to contact you. Otherwise, Joel especially, don't go wandering about by yourself. I can order a couple of my men to follow you if you want."

"I think I'll be fine," I said. "Thanks for the offer though. Bye"

We exited the office and Ashley grabbed me by the arm and turned me around. "Hey, Joel. I have to leave now and I don't think we'll see each other again for a while."

"Do you have to go now?" I'd really connected with Ashley over the brief time that I had been with her. It had all rushed by all too quickly and I could hardly believe I wouldn't see her again for a few months at the least.

"Yeah, I'm already late as it is and I seriously need to get to the docks. It would be pretty bad if it was me to hold up the departure of the Normandy. We can still keep in contact and hopefully our shore leaves will coincide so we can meet."

"Well," I wasn't sure exactly what to say. "Have fun chasing geth, or whatever you're going to do. But please be careful."

"I will." Just after she replied she pulled herself towards me and our lips met. I was completely unaware of my surroundings and could think of anything else apart from now. I had never felt anything about anyone like this before and just wanted to enjoy it all. The moment, however, ended too quickly and the two of us fell apart. "Bye then," Ashley walked off before I could say a word, leaving me standing alone yet happier ever.

Before she turned the corner and left my view I called out a question because otherwise it would be left a complete mystery. "Ashley!" she stopped and turned around, looking me in the eye. "Last night. Did we…?" I didn't want to finish the sentence in such a public place but she seemed to understand as she just gave me one of her amazing smiles then left. "Great."

"Joel." I nearly jumped out of my skin when Teiran said my name. I had completely forgotten about him. He must have been watching the entire scene unfold which made me feel slightly awkward.

"What?" I asked a little too frantically.

"I need to show you something."

* * *

"The Council has given me a lot of aid in com batting the mercenary threat," Teiran informed me as we drove over the bustling wards. I was told that we were going to the docks. "That includes a ship and entire crew. You'll see for yourself when we get there." Two minutes later the skycar descended onto the landing area of a large building. The whole scenario reminded me of where the Normandy docks in the first Mass Effect game. In fact, there was something else that reminded me it. "This is the Verdun. Welcome to your new home."

I looked at the magnificent frigate sized star ship but I was incredibly, pleasantly, shocked by the appearance of it. I had no doubt that I'll be able to find my way around the ship because it was an exact replica of the Normandy.


	12. The Departure

"The Normandy proved to be a very effective and efficient and the construction of a ship with the same design was thought of as a necessary lifesaving investment." Teiran strolled about the boardwalk as he talked while I just stood and admired the sleek beauty of the star ship. "The project nearly didn't happen due to budget issues but between the Council, the Turian Hierarchy and the System's Alliance enough credits were scraped together. Fortunately the Verdun didn't take any damage from the geth attack so now it's ready to go as soon as there's a pilot in the cockpit."

"Just one question," I interrupted and approached the turian. "Why is it called the Verdun?"

"The Battle of Verdun was fought during, I believe, the First World War on Earth," replied Teiran. "All human frigates are named after battles in your history and we thought that would be especially appropriate after the Normandy."

"Very interesting. When do we depart?"

"As soon as we can. The mechanics finished it earlier than expected so once everyone is here we can start the shakedown run. I'm also in charge of a multi-species team to help run the Verdun, as well as the combat squad. I'll show you around if you want. There isn't anything else you need to do is there?"

"No, that's fine by me." The spectre then led the way down into the airlock. The voice of a VI informed of a decontamination process which took place. "If I'm going to be leaving here anytime soon, will I need to get any equipment first?"

"Don't worry," said Teiran. "I informed Connor to bring your clothes and I already prepared all the equipment that you'd need." The interior door slid open and we entered the ship. "Welcome to the Verdun." We took a left and entered the cockpit area. I could just imagine Joker sitting in the central seat; instead, there was a dark purple asari furiously tapping away at the various panels. "This is Thelia Loysan. She has years of experience piloting in the asari fleet and, I was told, is one of the best."

She spun around in her chair and held out her hand which I took and shook. "It's good to meet you Joel." Her voice had a warm feel about it and she gave me a pleasant smile. I could hardly see her flying this warship into battle. "And yes Teiran, I am." She glared at the turian who gave an awkward smile.

"She wasn't my first choice," he informed me. "But after…um." After Sartak died. I finished his sentence in my head. "But there was no one better for the job. On with the tour." He turned his back and I followed him as he walked away. As I looked back Thelia raised her eyebrows briefly and swivelled back round to resume her work. Obviously Teiran still wasn't completely over his brother's death and I was sort of worried about him. "This is the Combat Information Centre, or CIC. Most of the work on the ship takes place here but you probably won't be spending too much time on this deck."

As we walked round the holographic image of the Verdun I noticed about a dozen crew members doing, whatever they did, on separate computers. There was a mix of humans, turians, asari and salarians all too busy to acknowledge my presence. We approached the set of stairs and Teiran spoke up again. "Through this door is the comms and conference room," he gestured towards the closed door with two turian guards in sentry positions standing straight with assault rifles in their arms. Without a pause, the spectre descended the left set of stairs leading us to the lower deck. "This is the living quarters. You can find the medical room, mess area, my own cabin and office, escape pods and sleeper pods. But don't worry; there are cabins on the bottom deck and I'm sure that you'll get to know everyone in due time. And there's one more deck I need to show you before then."

He then pushed a button and we waited in the quarters for the ship's elevator to ascend from below. We entered it and Teiran pressed another button of an interior panel so the doors shut and the reasonably spacious cubicle sluggishly moved down. It was just how I remembered it was in the game – frustratingly slow. "This thing won't work well in an emergency," I pointed out.

"It is a safety precaution," replied Teiran. "As you can imagine, a speeding elevator isn't exactly risk free in a warship. But, in an emergency only, there is an override switch." He tapped at a glass box containing a red button. I had a growing urge smash it open right now. After too long a time, the elevator finally ground to a halt and the doors smoothly slid open to reveal another familiar sight. "This is engineering and storage. You'll find your armour and weapons in the locker here," the spectre led me over to the row of containers and opened one up. They were all fairly large and for good reasons as Teiran pulled out a large armour case. He plunked it onto a workbench and unzipped it, revealing a set of armour. "It's the same set that you wore while fighting against the geth. At the moment it's just coloured standard black but you can customise it next time you have dock leave. As you may have heard, all firearms are being modified to use thermal clips as ammunition so your armour has extra pockets on the belt. We'll get you some practise with the reloading before the first mission."

One thing I noticed about this deck was the lack of a Mako. "Didn't the Normandy have some sort of vehicle to help with Shepherd's missions?"

"Yes," replied Teiran. "But at this moment in time I was unable to acquire one. I was told it would be a minimum of two months before the ships is allowed permission for one. But there's not much you need to know about this deck. Except there is the Tantalus Drive Core I still need to show you." He put my armour back and headed back past the elevator to a glowing blue area. There, behind a set of rails and electrical components, was the nearly ominous sight of the Verdun's drive core. "Breath taking, isn't it?"

"Yeah," was all I could say. I remembered that these were twice the size of any other ship's core and I could see how. "It looks like it barely fits."

"It makes it quite tricky for inexperienced pilots to handle," said Teiran. "But it makes the ship faster and quieter. We also have a team of mechanics constantly watching and maintaining it. I think I'll show you to your room now."

He led us back to the elevator and I noticed a few members of the team. Uvax, the krogan, was cleaning his shotgun and Raphyria was talking Talyon. The asari noticed me and smiled quickly before returning to her conversation. The elevator door opened to revealing Connor. The exhausted looking Irishman was standing amidst a pile of, at least, six suitcase styled bags. "Finally," he spoke airily. "Someone to help me with the bags."

"Did you bring both our brags all the way from your apartment?" I asked him.

"I got a cab most of the way," he responded. "It's really nothing. Honest. You might want to get in before the doors close." Teiran and I rushed in quickly before the elevator started its slow descent again. Connor slumped down onto a bag a sighed heavily. "It's not even all ours. Uvax dumped all of his crap with me and I was obliged to not anger the big fella'."

"You shouldn't let him bully you," said the turian in a half joking, half patronising fashion. "Just ignore him and ask someone for help."

"Oh ha ha." Connor stood up as we reached the bottom deck. "I've got to say. You've done well to land the frigate like this, Teiran. It's a shame that I don't know the crew at all."

"I'm sure they'll be glad to meet you. Are you two alright sharing a room?"

Connor and I looked at each other and he grinned cheerily while I responded first, "Yeah. That's fine by me."

"I'll take Uvax's bag for you," offered Teiran. "Your cabin is the last on the left and, if you need it, there's a gym and training room at the end of the corridor. Unless you're called for, have fun exploring the ship and help yourself to food from deck two. I'll see you around."

The turian then wandered off and Connor walked down the corridor and the two of us entered the small cabin. We had brought the bags, two each, with us and we dumped them in a corner. The room was small with a bunk bed on one side and a long wardrobe on the other. In one corner was a door leading to a somehow smaller en suite, simple fitted with a shower, toilet, sink and towel rack. "We'd better unpack our clothes then for starters."

"Yeah, okay," I said. "Most of this stuff must be yours because I barely had any."

"Well I have my armour I suppose. I like to keep it nearby in case of emergencies." He then pulled out his armour case from one the bags and stuffed it into the wardrobe. "Oh and, before you say anything, shotgun top bunk."

"Ah, no. Damn," I said; pretending to feel hurt. "My life is ruined." I then unzipped my bag and pulled out my few belonging and carefully hung them up in the wardrobe. "Have you any plans for what to do on the ship?"

Connor was sitting on the side of the top bunk, a small gust of wind from falling. "I suppose we should check out the firing range and get accustomed to reloading with these new thermal clips. Is that alright for you?" He then hopped of his bed, landing fairly gracefully.

"Yeah, sounds good. I'm not sure how long we have till we leave, or till we land at our next destination. I have no idea where we are going anyway. Do you know?"

"Nope," replied Connor. "I'm sure Teiran will reveal all in due time. Come on then." He opened our cabin door and we stepped out into the narrow corridor. We went left through a door opposite the elevator in a larger room. It was about twice as large as the CIC and one half of the room was covered in soft gym mats, whist the other that was separated with a thick glass wall was a firing range.

Shooting at the cardboard targets was Teiran. He took his time to line up a final shot using his pistol and, following a loud bang, the head of the target gained a clean hole. The turian lowered his weapon then turned around to face us. "Come to test out the new guns? I promise, once you get used to reloading, it's all very easy."

"Why did they have to change all the guns to have to use ammo?" Connor pondered. I also thought the same thing. Finding thermal clips sometimes became a bit of a nuisance. But I already knew the reasons for changing before Teiran explained.

"It was found that having to slow down the rate of fire to let weapons cool down wasn't very effective, especially against shields. The new threat of geth saw the use of shields increase so a market was seen for modifying firearms. Simply put the heat sink in the gun and once it has run out of ammo, flip the switch and replace it. Once you have practised, the reload should take less than two seconds. This means that shooting is rarely interrupted." He then demonstrated with his handgun the reloading sequence. The way he did it made the thermal clips seem to flow smoothly from one place to another. "Your turn."

He handed each of us a pistol and thermal clip. I examined the pistol and found an appropriate slot. Gun in my right hand, clip in my left, I tried to slide it in. I found that it wasn't fitting in and, after noticing Teiran giving me a stern look, I flipped it around and managed to slam it in cleanly. I stood by the counter facing down range and held out the pistol with my outstretched arms and took a breath. I aimed down the sights and a moment of silence, I shot. A hole appeared in the target's body, right in the centre of its chest. "Good shot," congratulated Connor. I then found a switch on the gun that released the clip. "But I think both of us still need a bit of work with this reloading."

"I need to head to the upper decks," said Teiran. "Nearly everyone should be onboard so we should be leaving within the hour. Feel free to continue training unless you're needed. There is an open comms system on the Verdun so you won't miss anything."

"Where are we even going?" I asked. "All I know is that we are fighting the mercenary groups in the Terminus systems."

"I'll call a meeting for the combat team once we have set off. All will be revealed then." Teiran then put back his gun on the weapons rack, and left the room.

"Mysterious," commented Connor. "I want to master this before I do anything else."

"I think that I'll join you on that challenge." I got a new thermal clip and put it into my gun. "About five seconds I'd say." Connor gave a nod of approval. "Teiran said it should take less than two seconds. When he did it, I'd say it was about one."

"If we can get to be that fast," said Connor. "I will be amazed. Plus, we need to try different weapons." He then reloaded his pistol, taking about the same amount of time as me. "This should keep us busy."

An hour later we were still at it. "Okay, that has to be at least two seconds," I commented. "We've been doing this for two long my hands beginning to ache."

"Yeah we'd better take a break," suggested Connor.

At that moment, a static sound appeared from the speaker located at the corner of the room. "Welcome everyone to the Verdun. This is Teiran Ravierex speaking. I am in charge of our mission and this ship so any questions and queries please come to me first," the spectre spoke clearly, with a proud sound his voice. "Each of you serving on this frigate is aware of what our job is and you have all been hand-picked as some of the best in your fields. What we are doing is dangerous, but we will achieve many things and save lives. We are about to leave the docks for our shakedown run and our first destination is the central hub of the Terminus Systems. Some of you may know that it is the space station, Omega." Damn. That's going to be an interesting trip. "I hope you enjoy your time on the Verdun and please by ready for lift-off in one minute. Can I also ask the combat team to meet in the conference room once we've left the Citadel. Thank you."

"I'm guessing he needs to go over what we're going to be doing exactly," pondered Connor. He put his gun back in the rack and I copied. "Let's head up to the CIC because it won't take long for us to be in the air."

As we entered the elevator I had to pause for a moment and think. I was going to Omega; a station full of criminals, crime and violence. I didn't know how long I would be there, but I could guess that it was going to be a new, dangerous experience unlike any I've had before. I wasn't looking forward to it.

**And that is the end of chapter 12. I realise that I'm releasing chapter faster than I thought I would so be grateful! I do enjoy writing and it feels great whenever someone reviews. I want to give a shout out to my few loyal followers who give a review every chapter. I sure you know if you're one of them and I'm sure if you look at the reviews you can see for yourself who those people are. Hopefully I'll be able to update soon. Bye for now.**


	13. The Arrival to Omega

Chapter 13: Welcome to Omega

"When we first arrive on Omega I will need to visit Aria T'Loak. She is de facto leader and known as the queen of Omega." Teiran spoke from his chair in the centre of the ring of seats that were located in the conference room. Filling the seats was the whole combat squad: Machat Dak'Tar, the batarian, Urdnot, Talyon, Teiran, Paleote, Raphyria, Connor and myself. "She keeps the mercenary groups under tight control and is without a doubt the most powerful person on the entire station. This means that we need to get into her good books. She will have a large net of informant that can get us what we want. Rodrigo Mentiroso." Teiran brought up an image on the overhead screen for all of us to see. It was a headshot of slightly chubby, Hispanic looking man in his thirties with olive skin and greasy black hair. "He is working with the Blue Suns in securing deals for their red sand projects. This includes transport, buying, selling and manufacturing. If we get to him, we can leave a major dent in the whole organisation and leave them vulnerable."

"How do you think we can get in her good books?" asked Raphyria, who leaned forward in her seat.

"From what I've heard," replied the spectre. "Just don't piss her off and we may have to do a few jobs to benefit her. Remember that it is all about her. She isn't directly enemies with the mercs or with us so it shouldn't be very difficult to get what we need."

"What do we do with Rodrigo when we find him?" Connor questioned.

"I know what I want to do with him," returned Machat. He was scowling angrily but I wasn't sure what he meant by what he said.

"Calm down Machat," said Teiran, sternly. "We need him to extract information and we can't do that when you've killed him! So, I'm ordering you to keep your history with him in the past."

"You were a Blue Sun, weren't you," asked Raphyria who received a brief nod in response. "Did you work with him? What made you leave?"

"I'd rather not, if you don't mind." The batarian growled lowly, his four eyes blinked simultaneously.

"How long do we have till we get to Omega?" Connor changed the subject quickly as he sensed the tension within the room.

"It shouldn't be any more than five hours," answered our leader. "You all might want to sleep for a bit or use the training room. It's all up to you. When we dock we'll still use the Verdun as the base of operations and only a few of us need to see Aria anyway. The rest can go on shore leave unless I need anything else from you. Well, unless anyone has any more to say, you're free to go."

I looked around the circle and nobody spoke and the squad began to disperse. As I left the room with everyone else, Raphyria tapped me on the shoulder. "Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to head down to the training room to practise your biotics. I thought you might want to try and improve it."

"Oh, yeah sure," I replied. "That sounds like a good idea." I realised that I hadn't spent any time working on my special abilities and probably should have after remembering how useful they can be at times.

After a very short walk but an extremely long elevator ride we were at the bottom deck and I was once again back in the training room. "I think you probably just need to practise a lot more," suggested Raphyria. "From what I've seen, your technique is near perfect. You seem to be a natural. The one thing is just repeating the process again and again."

"It seems quite draining on my energy," I said. "I'm guessing continuously using my biotics should make it easier over time."

"Correct," the asari said. "I think you can just use these practise dummies at the firing range." I approached the range and glowed blue. I threw a warp at the cardboard target and it ripped to shreds, falling on the floor in pieces. Raphyria gave me a look and raised her eyebrows. "I don't think we should waste anymore of those. Just try it on me and I'll keep up a barrier." We took a few steps onto the matted section and stood at opposite ends. She held up the palms of her hands and I saw a blue barrier appear around her. "Whenever you're ready."

"You'd better keep that up," I told her. "Otherwise I'd feel really bad about killing you."

"Don't worry. I can handle myself. Now, hurry up." I glowed blue and threw another biotic attack at her. I could see her brace as it neared her, speeding away from me. As it made contact, her shield rippled but it held as she took a step back to keep her balance. "That was powerful. Try another." I did as told and shot another warp at her. "How are you feeling? Are you getting tired yet?" As she asked the question she relaxed and her barrier faded away.

"Slightly," I replied.

"Then keep going. That's the only way to improve." I was expecting her to work me so hard but I knew it was best for me. I saw Raphyria return to her previous pose and so I repeated the process again and again and again until, maybe fifteen minutes later, I leaned over, panting heavily and noticed the asari breathing quickly.

"I think…that is…enough for today," I managed to speak between breaths. I slowly stood up straight. "I just really need a shower and some sleep."

"That sounds like a good idea. From what I've heard, Omega will leave you feeling like you're covered in crap."

"How nice." The two of us began to walk out into the corridor and we parted ways. "See you later then." I opened the door to my cabin and, seeing that Connor wasn't in, went to the bathroom for a long, hot shower. After about ten minutes later, I stepped out of the steaming water and into the dark blue walled room. I grabbed a nearby white towel and wrapped it around myself, wiping off the beads of water.

As I threw on a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt from the wardrobe, I realised that I hadn't eaten anything for quite a while and my stomach confirmed it when it rumbled deeply. Deciding what to do to tackle the problem, I headed out of my room and through the corridor to take the empty elevator up. I was waiting for the stop at the quarters but the lift stopped before then at engineering. The doors opened to reveal the lean, skinny figure that was Paleote. The salarian entered and stood next to me. "Going up?" he asked.

"Yeah, thanks," he pressed the button and the elevator resumed its slow path up.

"While I remember, I was told to pass on a message to you. Bexanis, in the medical bay, wanted to see you. It's nothing serious, but he just wants to check up on you before the next mission."

"Okay, sure. Who is Bexanis, just for reference?"

"The medic on the Verdun. A turian who Teiran knows from when he was in the military."

"Thanks then," I said as the doors opened. "I'll have to get some food afterwards then."

We entered the living quarters which were much busier than the lower decks with people hanging around the area. "There's a dispenser if you want snacks," Paleote informed me. "Unless you really want to spend time cooking a full meal."

"Thanks. I'll see you around." I departed from the salarian and found my way to the medical bay. "Hi," I said while standing at the open door, looking into the room. Sitting at a desk, surrounded by several empty beds was a turian. I was partially expecting to see Dr Chakwas in her place. There was something different about this alien from others of its species as it had a much shorter crest. "Are you Bexanis? I was told that you wanted to see me."

"Yes, thank you for coming Joel." I then realised the turian was female. I didn't know at first but, after hearing a more feminine flanging voice, I did. "I just need to check up on you and see that you're all fine for active duty. There are a few medical tests that I need to run that shouldn't take ten minutes. But, from what I've heard of your recent activities on the Citadel, I doubt that there's anything to be worried about. Do you want to take a seat and we'll get to it."

I approached a chair next to hers which was similar to that could be found in a dentist's surgery. "You are aware of my history aren't you? You know what Cerberus did to me."

"Yes I do," she replied. "Otherwise I think I might be fairly shocked by what I find from these tests. I was given the data that was recovered from the Cerberus base and I know what they did and used to," she hesitated for a moment, "what they used to modify you. To some level of degree at least." She added the last sentence quite quickly and I did notice that she was rather young and, perhaps, less experienced than other medics in the galaxy. But, I'm sure that Teiran chose her well. "Uhh, first can I just take a blood sample? So, if you don't mind, can you just lay out your arm for me?"

I willingly obliged and put my down on the armrest of my chair as she prepared the equipment needed. Namely a needle and syringe. "I've had a few of these done, maybe a year ago at most," I spoke the truth when talking about my life before entering this new universe. Then I realised my mistake.

"I thought you were suffering from amnesia," Bexanis looked at me, and stopped what she was doing. "You couldn't remember anything from before you were rescued. Am I wrong?" I was starting to panic but took my time to think before I spoke something stupid.

"No, you're right. I think being here in this situation has jogged my memory or something. It isn't very clear and I can't remember anything else at all. Is that a good sign?" I held my breath for a moment, praying that she'd believe my lie.

She took a second to study me before speaking. "Yes, I should think so. I can't recommend anything to help you remember more but, if you do, please tell me." I nearly breathed out a huge sigh of relief. I needed to be more careful and thankfully this time I had got off light. I wasn't sure how people would react to finding out that I was from another universe. I could think of a dozen scenarios that could occur, with all turning out bad me for me. They'd probably lock me up in some mental asylum and I'd have no way to get out. The turian then focused on taking my blood but first cleaned the inside of my elbow with a quick swipe of an anti-bacterial wipe. She then found one of my veins while holding the syringe in her right hand. "You should only feel a small prick." Thinking about it, was it my vein or was it actually an artery? "All done."

"What, really?" I was shocked at the speed of the whole process and had barely felt anything.

"Yep," Bexanis was holding a small vial of my dark red liquid as evidence. "Next, I'll just take your blood pressure." She used a similar device that I've seen from about 150 years ago that wrapped around my arm. It tightened slowly and, when it stopped, the female turian swiftly took it off. "Finally can you stand up? I just need you to perform a simple grip test." She handed me a instrument which fit comfortably in my hand. "Lift your arm up and grip as tightly as you can as you lower your arm back down." I stood up out of the chair and did as told. "Good. Those are all, but please take a seat again while I have a look at the results." I waited for about a minute, watching her brown eyes flick around when looking at the bright screen. I also looked out of the window that separated us, in the medical bay, with all the people in the living quarters. There were two human that I saw, one male and the other female, who were gobbling on very appetising, smoking hot sandwiches. "Well, you're fine as far as I can tell," Bexanis snapped my attention away from the very distracting food. "Your blood pressure is slightly above average however but I suppose that isn't a surprise. No. There isn't anything to be worried about. There isn't anything else I need from you but maybe I'll see you another time. It's likely that you'll get injured and I'll be waiting to stitch you back up again."

"Good. I'm glad that Cerberus isn't going to be the cause of my death. Not yet anyway." I turned around to face her before leaving. "Thanks then." I knew what I needed to do before any other task. I nearly ran over to the kitchen area while nearly slamming face first into a startled salarian. "Sorry!" I reached the tiled section, empty of other crew members. I examined a large, fridge-sized dispenser, covered in buttons each with a different label. My finger hovered over each for a second while I considered the choices. I finally decided and pressed down on the ham and cheese panini and selected the option for it to be toasted. After waiting only ten seconds, I heard a thud as my food dropped onto a waiting plate. Taking a bite out of the smoking hot sandwich, I was surprised by the quality of it. I was sure that most of the food on the ship would be processed and cheap but this tasted amazing.

"Excuse me," I turned around to see Connor standing behind me. "Do you mind if I grab something to eat. I haven't had anything for a while.

I moved out of the way so he could take my place. "I was just thinking the same thing actually. The food's better than you'd think."

Connor pressed a button and we both watched as tomato covered spaghetti slowly spurted out into a bowl. He picked it up, carefully eyeing it with cringing face. "Are you sure about that mate? It looks like something that came out from a baby with the plague. Not nice at all." He then grabbed a fork and ushered me over to the dining table. "Want to sit down?

"How are you finding the Verdun, then?" Connor asked me before stuffing his mouth with a load of pasta.

"It's a nice ship, yeah. I just had to have a medical check with Bexanis. Fairly brief and easy, luckily. I was half expecting to have to run on a treadmill for half an hour."

Connor took a large gulp before speaking. "That's good. I haven't actually met Bexanis yet. I've not talked to many female turians come to think of it. I think that there are only one or two others on the ship though. Is she nice?"

"What do you mean by nice?"

I could see Connor think about what I meant by my question and then he answered. "Oh. Nothing. It's just that it would be good, if I ever get injured as I might sometime during the mission, that there's someone that I wouldn't mind watching over me."

"Okay. Well I think you can trust her. But, at first, I thought she might be too young for the job." I finished off the last of my panini before continuing. "Of course, Teiran once worked with her and, if she's good enough for him then I have no doubt that she's suitable for this mission."

"Well that's good." Connor scraped his plate clean with his fork which caused a horrible screeching noise that he seemed to be oblivious to. "It would be nice if I didn't end up stuck in a bed for a week. But who knows what we'll be up against in the future."

"How long do we have till we get to Omega? Three hours maybe?" Connor nodded to confirm what I had asked him. "I actually think that I need to sleep for as long as I can before I do anything else. I try and wake up before we arrive, otherwise would you mind waking me? I'll need some time to prepare."

"Sure. Have a good sleep." I departed from my Irish friend and headed back to my room, looking forward for a long awaited sleep.

Three hours later I was back in the conference room of the Verdun which was now unmoving and docked at a space station in the heart of the Omega Nebula. I was just an airlock away from the dirty, criminal filled Omega. Teiran stood at the front of the squad, ready to speak. "I'm going to need a few of you to accompany me in meeting Aria T'Loak. She's located in the nightclub, Afterlife, and will be surrounded by henchmen. Remember that first impressions last so we need to make sure that ours is good. If all of us go then she'll feel threatened and if there's not enough of us we won't exactly look like we can handle ourselves. She needs to trust us and we need her. "Joel, Uvax and Raphyria will come with me. Everyone else, along with the rest of the crew who I have informed, is from now on shore leave. Feel free to do what you want but just don't get into trouble. I'll message you after we've met with Aria and we can discuss the next stages. I also want to advise you to keep your armour on while you're on Omega. Not just if you're urgently needed, but Omega's full of criminal so it's mostly a safety precaution. That is all. If you're with me, we'll meet outside the airlock in fifteen minutes. Otherwise, I'll see you later."

And so fifteen minutes later, I was standing outside with the turian and asari, wondering where the krogan had got to. "Where has that krogan got to?" I decided to ask out loud. I wasn't too keen on standing around where we were but I couldn't think of anywhere else on Omega that would. We were standing by the door of the Verdun's airlock, in a filthy corridor covered with a layer of dust. One thing that stood out about my first visit to Omega wasn't just the terrible appearance, but the lingering smell of last night's vomit and the fumes from the constant skycars flying by overhead. The thick air that carried this odour felt like it clung to the skin and got stuck in the throat leaving you feel, as Miranda Lawson said (or will say in about two years), like you'd need a shower as well as well as the standard decontamination.

"He said he was checking his armour," informed Teiran. "But it would be good if he could sort it out some time today. I'm considering messaging him actually."

As he finished his sentence, the airlock door opened and before us stood the bulky figure of Uvax. Stepping out into the light, we witnessed his blood red armour shine as he growled, "What are you waiting for? Aria won't stand around all day in Afterlife." I thought to myself about what he said. For all I know about her, Aria does just stand on her balcony day and night.

* * *

**So I've started putting in titles in all previous and up and coming chapters. Sooooo yeah. That is all. There is no more news but the story won't be based on Omega so there won't be too much happening or for too long.**

**Sorry! I've just updated the chapter and got rid of the mistakes. I realized that I had proof read it and so I had some old ideas mixed with the ones that I'm sticking with. So just to clarify, the medic is Bexanis who is a turian. I updated a day after I released the chapter so if your reading this don't worry about what I've said. **

**I'll see you next time. Hopefully without the initial mistakes.**


	14. The Task

Chapter 14: The Task

The lights of the artificial flames reflected in the eyes of the passers-by. A few of them gave us quick glances before continuing their walk. The Verdun had landed at a dock near Afterlife and I could see the bright shine of the neon lights above the entrance guiding the four of us to the nightclub. As we approached the main entrance I spotted the line in front of a grumpy looking elcor. I suppose that all elcor look quite grumpy though. Teiran, however, simply ignored the queue and approached an armed batarian who was looking menacingly at our group. "Join the queue or leave," he commanded mechanically. His four eyes blinked simultaneously as he stood in our way and I saw them flicker between the four of us. Being in full armour, even with helmets, we didn't exactly look like we weren't a possible threat so I wasn't surprised about the delay we were experiencing. We all had pistol on our belts as well which probably wasn't a good way to go around greeting the de facto leader of Omega.

"We need to speak with Aria." Teiran waited for a response but the batarian just looked at us and crossed his arms. "I'm a Citadel Spectre but I'm not looking for any trouble. Just tell her I need to talk."

The batarian paused for a moment and examined while he thought of what to do. I saw him put a finger up to his ear and mumble and few words to whoever was at the other end. He took his arm back down and waited, along with us, for a response. About half a minute later a voice came from his radio and finally he spoke again. "Go in."

We entered through the door, as the guard stepped aside, and stepped into the red glowing entrance hall with illuminated neon walls. "Try not to attract any attention," said Teiran as we casually strolled along the path while ignoring the looks given by the party goers. "And I'll do the talking when we get to Aria." He finished his sentence as we walked through the second set of doors and into the main hub of the nightclub. A wall of sound greeted us and so did the sight of many drinkers, people having a good time and, of course, the asari dancers balanced precariously on the central, circular platform. As we made through the crowd, I spotted a familiar asari standing over her mini empire in her balcony and it seemed like everyone did as Teiran said, "Everyone ready? Hopefully things will all go smoothly." We approached the stairs leading to the 'queen' but before I left her line of sight; I briefly made contact with her.

"Stop," commanded a turian who blocked our path just like previous batarian. I think I can remember that his name was Grizz. His assault rifle lay threateningly in his arms. "You're the Spectre?" He received a nod. "I have to ask you to surrender your weapons. You'll get them back as you leave." He drooled out the instructions as if he'd said it a million times before. It would be boring though, standing around in the same spot all day. We all looked to Teiran for leadership and he nodded again so I pulled out my gun and handed it to Grizz who put the collection in a locked safe. I felt quite vulnerable without a gun but I knew, if anything happened, I had my secret weapon at hand. Biotics. "Go on up." Grizz allowed us entrance and we ascended the short flight of stairs.

We stood, surrounded by half a dozen armoured bodyguards with weapons pointed at us, in the presence of Aria T'Loak. The asari stood, with her back to us, watching over the people in Afterlife. I had a small urge to run up and give her a small nudge. But, I knew that nothing good would come out of that act. "I must say that this is a surprise. A Citadel Spectre turning out of the blue and wishing to meet with me. I had your ship tagged as soon as it came into range and it only fit one other known match. You're not Commander Shepherd. No. Teiran Ravierex. Omega certainly is an odd destination for a shakedown so I'm guessing that you have a reason for this." She swirled on the spot 180 degrees to face the four of us. A batarian approached Teiran and scanned him with a device with no resistance.

"I'm looking for someone," Teiran informed her.

"That is a statement," said Aria. I could see her eyes burn into the turians. "Look. I don't like my time wasted so get to the point or leave the station. Otherwise I'll have one of men throw you out of an airlock."

I could only pity Teiran and I was glad I wasn't in his shoes but he seemed to stay under control as he replied, "I was wondering if you might have information for me. I need help finding someone. He works with the Blue Suns."

Aria sat down on the centre of the couch and commanded the Spectre, "Sit. Tell your people to leave. Have a drink or something. I'll talk to you alone."

Teiran looked at us and said, "I won't be long. Wait downstairs." The two of them were hardly alone as Aria still had her men on guard but me, Uvax and Raphyria still did as we were told and left.

We passed Grizz and stood, uncertain of what to do. The first person to speak was Uvax. "Well I'm getting a drink." He then walked of leaving me and the asari alone for a moment.

We looked at each other and Raphyria said, "We'd better not split up." The two of us followed the krogan who had moved surprisingly quickly to a bar. Somehow he had already got a drink and was guzzling it down while leaning against the counter.

"You might want to take it slow," I suggested to him but I wasn't too keen on angering him. "We are essentially working."

He turned around and looked at me. His small eyes narrow and I gulped. It could nearly be heard above the throbbing electro music. "I can handle it." He received another shot and down it in one. I didn't even slightly doubt him. "You should have one."

"No, thank you." I hadn't really had any time to try any drinks of the alcoholic kind and knew that Omega wasn't the best place to start. "Looks like Teiran has finished anyway." I had spotted him storming towards us with a small frown noticeable on the ridge of his brow.

Uvax stood up straight to greet and ask him, "How did it go?"

The turian let out a lot of air in a long sigh. "There's good news and bad news. Good news is that Aria knows exactly where to find Rodrigo Mentiroso. But the bad news is that she isn't willing to give the location up unless we do a job for her."

"What job?" I asked.

"We're to retrieve a package from a contact of hers. She has a deal with him and I'm guessing that she just needs us to prove that we are trustworthy and not a waste of her time."

"She does know what we're going to do to Mentiroso, doesn't she?" asked Raphyria.

"She isn't stupid," said Uvax with a growl. "How do you know we can trust her and that she isn't just wasting _**our**_time?" He crossed his thick arms and waited patiently for a response. I could hear his breath disrupt the air around me with the smell of an unknown alcoholic substance."

"We can't," Teiran truthfully replied. "But, unless we want to spend the next weeks chasing information, this is the only option. We're to meet the contact in under an hour at an abandoned warehouse so I reckon it's best if the four of us go unless you have any objections." Ah yes; the old cliché of meeting someone at an abandoned warehouse.

We shook our heads in reply but Uvax questioned him again. "How are we supposed to get to this warehouse? I doubt this piss hole has a taxi service."

"I'll get Machat to hire a skycar and he can drive us there. I'll also inform everyone else of what we're doing and then they can get an extended period off the ship on shore leave. Lucky them. Come on, we don't have time to spend standing around." He led us out of the nightclub while sending messages from his omni-tool to the rest of the squad. I couldn't imagine what they could spend their time doing on Omega and was surprised that I hadn't seen anyone in Afterlife. "Machat should be meeting us here." We stopped outside the entrance out of the way of the elcor bouncer and the queue it was in front of. For ten minutes we stood and waited until a skycar descended a few metres from us.

Out of it stepped Machat. "Where do we need to go?"

* * *

It took twenty minutes for us to arrive in our destination. The skycar landed and Machat positioned it in a small, dingy alleyway snuggled between two large warehouse buildings. We exited while the batarian stayed in his seat. Teiran stood in the centre of a four way junction in the path and looked around. There weren't many lights in this area and we couldn't see more than twenty feet in either direction. "Is this the right place?" I asked.

"Yes," replied Teiran. "We're right on time as well."

"I don't like the feeling of this place." I felt very exposed and thought I heard something coming from above. The buildings were only about a story high and were flat. Perfect for someone to stand upon. Out of the dark came a shot. It echoed around the walls and heard a cry from Raphyria.

She was leaned against the wall, clutching her chest. "I'm alright." She managed to say. "It didn't penetrate the shield I'm fine. Get in cover!"

Her shout made us aware of the situation we ran back to the skycar. Bullets whizzed past us before we reached it so we dived behind a dumpster. Raphyria was slouched down and gasping for breath. "Are you alright?" I asked her as Teiran and Uvax returned fire.

"Yep, thanks. It just winded me, that's all."

"Can you even see them?" I asked as all I could see down the alley was gloomy darkness.

"No," replied Teiran. He was sliding in a new thermal clip. "They must be using thermal scopes or something."

"I told you," said Uvax. "Aria's someone that would pull a stunt like this."

"Why would she want to kill us?" I put the question out there. "This is probably the contact but they changed their mind and are now angry for some reason."

Suddenly, out of the skycar stepped Machat. He carried a sniper rifle and held it up to aim. The scope looked slightly different and he shot a few times deliberately down the alley. "I also have a thermal scope," he called out to us. "Hurry and get in the car." The four of us didn't hesitate and, with him covering us and me helping Raphyria along, we rushed to the skycar and bundled in.

"Get us out of here," ordered Teiran.

"Where are we going?" asked Machat as he pulled the skycar up into the air. A few shots rebounded of the side but luckily didn't cause any damage. I spotted a few shadows of our attackers but they were too far away to make out and became smaller as we fled from the scene.

"Afterlife. I need to speak to Aria." With a few seconds we were out of danger and up into the air.

* * *

We were soon back where we were before in Afterlife, listening to the throbbing music. Uvax was drinking again and Teiran was talking again to Aria alone. "I wonder what they're saying," I said to Raphyria. I could see the top of Aria's head on the couch.

"Hopefully he isn't going to angry with her because we don't want to get on the wrong side of her. She doesn't have anything against the Citadel but I know she definitely isn't easy to negotiate with."

"So you don't think that it was her that wanted us dead? It wasn't her men that were shooting at us."

"No," Raphyria replied. "I reckon that it's like you said earlier. Whoever we were meant to meet with must have had something against Aria and had reconsidered the deal they'd made. We can ask him anyway, now that he's here." Teiran was walking away from Aria's booth and towards us. There was a sense of déjà vu from less than an hour before, except there seemed to be a significant improved to Teiran's facial expression. "What did she say?"

"I know where to find Mentiroso which is the good thing."

"What about what happened at the warehouse?" I asked him.

"She used us," he replied. "Aria knew that the contact wasn't exactly happy about the arranged proceedings and didn't want to put her men in danger so we were exactly what she needed."

"And how do you know we can trust her now?" questioned Raphyria.

"Why would she want to kill us? She knows that she can trust us which is good and besides, the Blue Suns aren't exactly best friends with her so we'll be doing her a favour and she knows that."

"Where is Mentiros?" Uvax finally finished his drinks and started paying attention to our conversation.

"He has his own penthouse in the Kima District. The Blue Suns pay him fairly handsomely for his work but we can plan our attack on the way there. I need to decide on the squad first. It'll be infiltration so we only need a small squad. Raphyria, I think you'd better head back to the Verdun and get Bexanis to check up on you just to be safe. Uvax, you can go off duty now but I promise you'll see some action." Uvax just grunted and returned to the bar to order another drink while. Raphyria left. "I'm going to get Connor and Talyon to meet us at the skycar as they're both infiltration specialists. The four of us should be sufficient enough for taking on Mentiroso."

* * *

So fifteen minutes later Teiran, Connor, Talyon and I were sitting in the skycar with Machat at the front and driving through the traffic. "Are we to expect many guards?" asked the drell.

"Apparently not," replied Teiran. "According to Aria, Mentiroso likes his own privacy and relies on a security system that we'll have to bypass. We'll have to hack into the elevator as his room is on the top floor. But, there may be a couple of Blue Suns on patrol. More for the mercenaries' benefits that his. He holds a lot of valuable information that they won't want to lose."

"We're going to really piss them off them," commented Connor. "I'm not sure that that's very sensible with them being one of the three largest mercenary groups in the galaxy. You do know that right?"

"Of course," Tieran said calmly. "That's generally the aim. Looks like we're here anyway. Make sure you have your silencers attached. We need to be quick and undetected otherwise there'll be a hundred mercs bearing down on our position within a minutes." I wasn't too keen on that idea so I did as told and, after taking out my pistol and submachine gun which I had been given from the Verdun, screwed on a silencer on each weapon. The skycar dropped down about twenty metres away from a street corner and came to a halt. There four of us taking part in the operation got out with guns at the ready. "The entrance to the penthouse is just round the corner." We silently padded along the abandoned street till we reached the junction leading off and we lined up against the wall. Teiran took a quick glance round the corner and said, "The street's one way. No paths leading off it and the entrance it right at the end about forty metres away. Talyon, there are two guards on either side of the door. Do you think you can take them out?"

"No doubt at all." The drell pulled out a large sniper rifle from his back and crouched down, taking aim. He fired two silenced shots around the corner in quick succession before standing up again. "Done."

Teiran then signalled for us to follow him down the street. We jogged quickly towards the glass entrance of a very tall building and stepped over the bodies of the two dead Blue Suns. "Aria gave me a hacking module that should be good for unlocking this door without alerting anyone. Do you think you can work with it Connor?"

"Sure. Just send it to me and I'll have a go." Connor opened his omni-tool and so did Teiran. The Irishman then started working on the holographic entry pad. "That should do it." The doors suddenly slid open and we entered the building. At the opposite end of the wide entrance hall were three elevators. We walked across the dark, unlit tiles which were surprisingly clean for Omega and approached the central lift. "Hide the bodies inside and stay on lookout for anyone Talyon," ordered Teiran and the drell headed back to the street to follow the orders. "Joel and Connor. We're going up to visit Mentiroso." We then entered the metal cube and the Spectre pressed the button to the top apartment but to no avail. "It looks like you need a key card to get access to his penthouse. Connor, would you do the honours."

"With pleasure," Connor said and opened up his omni-tool again to reuse the hacking module. Within ten seconds he had completed his task and the elevator began to move smoothly up.

"Remember that we're not here to kill him," Teiran reminded us. "We need information from him and that's our top priority. When we get what we need we can kill him. Otherwise, he'll just continue his work with the Blue Suns." The elevator slowed and the doors slid open. We tentatively stepped forward into spacious, dimly lit room. The only light was from outside breaking through the blinds of the windows. We were in a living area with a couple of sofas positioned around a screen. On either side were doors leading to other doors. "Connor, Joel, take the left room and I'll the right." With that he left us so Connor and I approached the left door.

"Ready?" he asked me with an airy whisper and I nodded in reply. He opened the door with pistol at hand and we entered a completely pitch black room. Connor found switch and flicked it to reveal, after a moment of blindness, that we were in Mentiroso's white tiled bathroom. I heard a cry from the living area and in response Connor said, "Sounds like Teiran found him."

"…douche! What do you want from me?" The lights of the apartment had been turned on and, lying in the middle of the floor, was Rodrigo Mentiroso with Teiran standing over him with his handgun pointed at the man. "Do you not know who you're messy with by doing this?" He then spotted me and Connor. "What the fuck do you want?!"

"You make deals for the Blue Suns, yes?" Teiran interrogated him and received a frightened nod. "You know where their red sand suppliers are."

"Why would I tell you?" Mentiroso got a strong punch round the face from the turian. "Fuck you!" Teiran shot. The bullet buried itself deep in Metiroso's foot. "Aaaaaah!" I could see the pain on his face. "Their main suppliers are some batarian slavers run by two brothers. They expanded their little empire into the red sand business and made deals with the Blue Suns."

"Where do I find them?" Teiran growled at him.

"There's an OSD in my bedroom." Teiran looked up at Connor who received the message then ran off to return an hour later with the storage device. "Please. I don't know anything more than what is on the OSD. Please let me go."

"So you can continue your work? I don't think so." Before anyone could say anything and intervene Teiran shot his gun again, this time into Mentiroso's unprotected head. "We have what we need. Let's get back to the Verdun."


	15. The Rescue

Chapter 15: The Rescue

We were off the streets of Omega and back in the cool of the Verdun's conference room where the air was clean and fresh. It was a relief to be out of the thick, stuffy, smelly climate on the dirty space station and, although I had grown use to it, I was still grateful for the artificial air conditioning system installed on the frigate. Fortunately Teiran had given us half an hour to change and take a shower whilst he examined the contents of Mentiroso's OSD. So once again we, the squad, were sat in a circle in the conference. The Spectre was working on the computer terminal for holographic screen so we waited. Connor was first to pipe up in the midst of the mumbles of various different conversations. "Hey Teiran. I was thinking that we should have a name for our squad."

"Sounds great," commented the turian sarcastically. He didn't even turn around to face us and we just saw he back as he spoke. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm not too sure really. It's just we need a name that we stand for and something that people know. We need something to unite us."

Machat growled, "That's a pile of crap."

"Ooooh, how about 'the Predators," Connor suggested, ignoring the batarian opinion. "You know? Because we're hunting down the scum of the galaxy." The jokingly way that he said it suggested that we were some sort of sparkling squad of superheroes.

"Next you're going to suggest that we wear matching armour." It was Uvax' turn to disprove Connors idea.

"That would be a sight," I said trying to imagine said image.

"Okay," Teiran interrupted the conversation, drawing all attention to him. "I looked at the OSD and we're lucky as I've found a lot of useful data." He pulled up a map of a star system onto the screen and indicated on it was one particular planet. "This is where the majority of red sand extraction takes place. The planet of Eingana in the Amada system in the Omega Nebula. The D'Tok brothers are two batarians who run a major branch of the Blue Suns red sand business. On Eingana they extract the element zero, refine it and then transport it to be sold."

"I'm guessing it's not just the two of them that do that work," said Talyon.

"No. Having been slavers in the past, they have a few dozen slaves at their control. Eingana has a fairly hazardous environment and colonization is a deadly peril. But somehow they managed to install a base and factory and have an unthreatened supply of drugs because of the secret nature of the location. But now we're here to stop it. We're flying straight to Eingana to kill the D'Toks and stop their slave business. Any questions? No. Good. You all might want a sleep before we land on Eingana. It might be a busy day."

As everyone began to leave, Connor shouted out half-heartedly, "Go Predators!"

"Shut up Connor!" called out Machat.

I headed straight to the elevator and entered it with Connor and Talyon. It began to descend and the drell was first to speak. "What actually happened in Mentiroso's apartment? I still don't know."

Connor and I looked at each other but he decided to answer the question. "Teiran sort of, killed Mentiroso without giving him any chance to redeem himself."

"I don't really know him very well," I commented. "So is that usual for him?"

"It is true that he likes to get the job done," answered Connor. "But I've never really seen this sort of behaviour from him."

"Do you think it's something to do with his brother?" I asked.

"They were very close," implied Talyon. "There were best friends and colleagues but it's hard to tell how he's handling it. I have a feeling that he won't want to talk about it."

"Will it affect his decisions though?" I put out another question. "Because he could get someone killed if he hasn't got a clear mind."

"I shouldn't think so," replied Talyon again. "He knows how to lead a squad and is experienced enough not to get distracted by Sartak's death. He did have a good reason to kill Mentiroso though, but I'll still talk to him before the next mission about it." The door opened to reveal to the corridor of the sleeping cabins. "I'll see you two later."

The drell left and I suggested to Connor, "We should probably get some sleep like Teiran said. I only had a few hours to rest before Omega and would prefer to not want to fall asleep in the middle of a firefight."

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Six hours later, the squad, or the Predators as Connor had taken to calling us, were standing fully equipped in the storage area with Teiran at the front of our cluster. "We will be landing in a few minutes now so we need to go through the plan of action. The OSD didn't have any plan of the Blue Suns base so we'll be mostly blind on the ground. They don't have many base defences in terms of sensors but the Verdun will drop us far enough away to not be spotted."

"What sort of terrain has Eingana got?" asked Raphyria.

"It is a hot garden planet, littered with debris of ancient starships from a battle between two long extinct races. That's why there are large deposits of element zero. Hopefully there should be a good enough clearing where we can land."

"Who's going on this mission?" asked Uvax. I could tell that he was anxious to get some action after not having an opportunity on Omega?"

"Don't worry because all of you will need to be involved. It's going to be a big job and we'll all need to be at our best if we're to succeed. The first team will be Connor, Joel and Machat. Your first aim will be to get some uniforms from the Blue Suns. They are all humans or batarians so when you find a way inside, you can fit in with the mercs. Try and find out as much as you can about the base entrances and exits, where the slaves are and who the buyers of the red sand are before you start shooting them in the back. Your priority though, is to get to and make sure that the slaves are safe. Clear out all the guards in the area that they're being held." I was quite interested by the prospect of not running in and shooting straight away. Hopefully my life will be safe for a bit longer than a typical mission. On the second team I want Paleote and Talyon. You can work with team one to infiltrate the base but I want you to find the D'Toks and kill them." He received a nod from the salarian and drell. "Then Urdnot, Raphyria and I will create a distraction on queue. We'll find a good place to wreck some havoc but we don't want them to know that anything is wrong so we won't do anything until you need us. Is everyone clear?"

At that moment Thelia's voice came from the speaker. "One minutes till touchdown. All stations be prepared."

"We'll be exiting from this hanger together," Teiran informed us. "Make sure you have everything you need." I checked my weapons to confirm that they were with me and functioning then followed the group as we moved forward towards the large bay door that was slowly opening. I could see the top of a canopy of trees, with a dull grey backdrop of cloud, which seemed to be fast approaching us as the Verdun descended. A wispy cloud seeped into the hanger, gracing us with the first scent of Eingana. It seemed very humid and hot, with an odd variety of strong smells from a diverse range of flowers.

I could feel a sense of tension between all of us as we were about to enter the unknown. "You ready?" Connor gave me a small nudge in the side and I nodded in reply. I rarely got nervous and that was true for this moment. But, I was slightly apprehensive of the thought that anything might happen when we get down to the surface. Shepherd never landed on this planet and so I knew nothing about it unlike Omega.

Suddenly though, we dropped down beneath the tallest tree and we entered shadow. The Verdun slowed down and, with the slightest bump, came to a stop. In front of us, down the small, sloped ramp was a pasture of long, un-kept, dark green grass. Teiran started to walk out of the ship and we followed him without any second thoughts. I stepped of the metal and, with a squelch, trod down onto the muddy ground. I took a few steps away from the Verdun, into a light drizzle, and looked back to admire the ships once more. Talyon was the last to step out and, once he had, the ramp slowly started to raise and shut us out. "Nice weather," I said sarcastically.

"Thelia," I heard Teiran speak into his helmet's radio. "Wait in orbit until we've done. You might be needed to blow the base once we get out. Got it?" The squad took a few steps back from the Verdun and I watched as it lifted off and ascended above the tree canopy before disappearing into the cloud. "Everyone follow me and stick together. We don't need to split until we've actually found the base. It's about a ten minute walk from here but I only know the direction." We started walking and, after only a few metres, we entered and disappeared into the overgrown forest. The trunks of the trees were thick and covered with dark moss. The ground had small tufts of grass dotted around the roots of the trees but most of the ground was dark mud as not much light managed to penetrate the canopy. We stumbled in a line through the undergrowth in silence for a few minutes before Teiran held up a hand, beckoning us all to stop. He then crouched and we imitated him. Then we waited. I wasn't sure what he might have seen or heard but I wasn't going to risk talking now. We waited and waited for about a minute but nothing changed. Nothing but the patter of heavy footsteps somewhere off in the distance. Yet, uncomfortably close. As the area fell to silence again, another sound followed the previous disruption. This time it was different, a loud roar cause by an unknown creature sent shivers running down my neck and reverberated around the leaves before dying away.

"What? What was that?" whispered Raphyria. I could feel a sense of fear in her voice.

"I don't know?" Teiran answered her. "Whatever it is though, it doesn't sound friendly. We need to keep moving but keep your eyes out and ears open." At the front of the line he started moving and gradually we were all mobile again.

Connor, being in front of me, stopped at one point to examine a tree trunk. I saw what he had spotted and noticed a large, long gash in the bark. He looked back at me and gave a comically exaggerated gulp. "Looks like a claw mark," he pointed out to the rest of the squad who were intrigued by our find. "Whatever made this must've been pretty big. Uncomfortably big." I suddenly felt quite unnerved and gripped my Locust tighter in my hands.

"Keep moving," Teiran ordered us. "These slaves aren't going to save themselves." We followed his command and I tried not to imagine what might've made the gash in the tree. We progressed, for a few more minutes, through the unchanging forests with no more disturbances. None until we came to another small clearing. We panned out to see what had caused Teiran to stop. On the ground, lying limp in the mud and blood, was the mutilated corpse of a Blue Sun guard. A large portion of his chest armour had been ripped off to reveal a bloody hole where there lay his broken ribs. His scratched helmet lay beside his head. I could only just tell that he was a batarian, though his face was indistinguishable during it being completely gouged at.

"Poor bastard," commented Connor. "What could've done this to him?"

"Probably the same creature that made the scar on the tree," guessed Talyon.

"And the one that made these footprints," said Uvax as he pointed to the ground. We looked at the prints left in the mud. "They are big." He was right. Even being the biggest one of here, the krogan's boots seemed miniature compared to these. The footprint was at least three feet long with three thin toes at one end. They were big, so whatever they were supporting must have been quite large as well. "He's a Blue Sun. He got what he deserved."

Another, louder roar came from a nearer location. We all looked around; even Uvax had a concerned look on his face. I wasn't sure what to do until Teiran shouted out a command, "Into the forest! We need to get out of here." We hastily got out of the open and back into the gloomy foliage. I had to be careful about the numerous roots that stuck up in precarious places as I bounded around the forest in pursuit of Teiran who was currently in the front. The branches whizzed past me in a blur and a few scrapped against the outside of my helmet. I barely noticed any change to the surroundings until I saw everyone had disappeared.

I stopped and looked around in a moment of panic before someone grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the side. There, crouched down by a large fallen tree, was Connor, Raphyria and Machat. They signalled for me to duck out of sight, and I did, then Connor put a finger over his helmet where his mouth would be and I stayed absolutely quiet. I tried to slow my breathing as much as I could and listened out to other sounds coming from the other side of our cover. I was wondering where the rest of the squad was for the few moments of silence until I heard a crash sound from just a few metres away. I kept my head down out of sight from whatever was on the other side of the fallen tree and noticed that the other three, even with helmets, seemed to look confused, if not frightened. I could hear a rustle of leaves on the ground and scrapping of the mud. Something the put pressure onto the tree and it slowly rocked and then it was followed by a few thuds caused by heavy footprints that seemed to quieten as the creature moved away from us and appeared to move back into the forest. We waited a few more moments, daring not to make a sound until Connor whispered airily, "Is it gone?"

The area fell to silence again then I said, "I think so. But what was it? It sounded big." Again there was complete quiet apart from the small movement of leaves because of the weak gusts of wind. I peeked over the top of the mossy tree trunk and looked over at where the beast had been. In the mud lay the same large footprints and small holes dug up by some rapidly moving claws.

"We need to find the others," said Raphyria. We had all relaxed somewhat now that the danger had passed. "They should be nearby. I didn't see if they kept running though."

"Yeah," replied Connor. "This way." He led us just a few dozen paces through the forest until, to much of my surprise, a squad of fully armoured Blue Suns stepped out of the trees with assault rifles raised.

"Stop right there or you'll not see the sun rise tomorrow." One of the mercs commanded us with a stern voice and the four of us did so without hesitation. "Drop your weapons." We were just about do as told, knowing that we'd have no chance against the ten or so of them, but a familiar sound distracted us. The thundering sound of heavy, hasty moving feet was approaching us at an alarming, terrifying rate. I could hear branches being ripped of tree trunks and, just as the Blue Suns turned in response to the crashing noise, the creature bounded into the area onto an unsuspecting merc. It ripped off part of his armour and gnawed at his flesh.

The beast then stood, for a moment, on its hind legs, allowing us to admire it in awe. It was tall, standing currently at about ten feet, and had a thick, pale, leathery hide that was tightly stretched around a muscular body. On each foot there were three thin toes and sharp claws that were a few inches long. Its head was long and pointed, with a sharp row of canines in its long, thin mouth. It then tilted its head to the sky and roared with resounding screech. "Shoot it!" screamed one Blue Sun who was immediately sliced down with a swift slice of the creature's claw. Some mercs started shooting at it, their guns shots left small holes in the beast's skin but it continued its rampage of biting and slashing, but most dispersed, running mindlessly into the forest and away from the scene.

I pulled out my submachine gun and pistol, dual wielding the two weapons, and Connor, Raphyria and Machat readied their weapons. Soon we created a barrage of bullets which seemed to increase after a few seconds of firing. When my thermal clips had been depleted, the monster was dead and no mercs were in sight. "Seriously," said Machat once silence had fallen again. "What the fuck was that?" I was extremely glad that the mercenaries had distracted the creature, otherwise who knows what might've happened. I could have been killed, or one of the squad. Even though I'd not spent much time with them, I felt a connection and felt like I was part of the team. I hadn't ever been close to someone who'd died before. I was pretty lucky in that sense. Though there was a girl in my year at school, Sarah, who had been killed in a traffic accident a couple of months ago. I didn't know her very well with the few interactions I had grown to like her but, out of the blue, she was dead. Everyone mourned her but they seemed to move on more quickly than they should have. It was in the past though, so I didn't have to worry about it now.

"An indigenous life form." Teiran had replied. I turned around and there was the turian and the rest of the squad with the barrels of their guns smoking. "Some had been affected the element zero deposits. I didn't know that it might be a problem. But it seemed like it wasn't. Not for you at least." Lying on the ground were four bloody corpses. "We very near their base now. I doubt that we'll encounter another one of these things again."

* * *

Twenty minutes and a few hacked doors later, Connor, Machat and I were in an armoury of the Blue Suns base. We were able to find a way up to a landing area on the roof and made our way inside without detection and had said goodbye to Paleote and Talyon who were off to find the D'Tors. The three of us, however, were now dressed in clean white and blue suits or Blue Sun armour. With the helmets on, it would be difficult for anyone to know that we were impostors unless they checked for I.D which was unlikely in such a big facility as this one. Fortunately we were alone in the armoury and there were plenty of spare suits of armour lined up around the side of the white walled room. "I've got a map of the base," Machat informed us as he searched through a computer terminal. "It looks like the slave quarters are in the same wing of the base as we are. So they're nearby." He then grabbed an assault rifle from the weapon rack to the right of him. "You two might also want get an Avenger. It seems pretty standard for the mercs to wield them and we want to draw the least amount of attention to us as possible." Connor and I did so, and my locust and pistol stayed down on my belt. "We'd better get going. If we encounter any Blue Suns, let me do the talking. I don't trust Connor with any responsibility." Machat did make a decent point, I suppose.

"Jeez," replied Connor. "Thanks loads for the trust you have in me." Machat then opened one of the doors leading out of the armoury and took the lead through the corridors. "So what's actually in this place? Did you see on the map?" Connor did have a point as well. The corridors seemed long and winding and generally heading in one direction but with a few doors, mainly leading to the left.

"The centre of the facility houses the refining factory to make the red sand," answered the batarian. "And it's encircled with corridors and various rooms where we are."

"What about those Blue Suns outside," I asked. "What were they doing outside? It didn't look like they were going mining. They had no equipment."

"Probably just a patrol," suggested Machat. "If they had detected the Verdun there'd be much more activity. We're lucky that we haven't seen any mercs yet." And, of course, just as he said that, we turned a corner into the view of two Blue Suns who were standing by a door, casually chatting to each other. They turned to eye us for a moment before continue with their conversation as we walked past them. I thought of giving a small nod but, then again, no interaction was better than an awkward one.

As we moved past and out of earshot, Connor said in a hushed voice, "They didn't seem very friendly. A bit rude even. They didn't even say hello."

"Shut up Connor," said Machat in an annoyed manner. "Just be thankful that they didn't start a massive conversation and slow down. If they found out then it's not like we could shoot them. We'd bound to be detected then." We then turned another corner and into a long straight corridor. At the end was a door guarded by another two mercs. "That's the way into the slave quarters. I'll handle this." Machat spoke quietly before slowly approaching the sentries.

They entered a more attentive pose and one of them, another human, spoke with a stern voice. "Nobody's scheduled to come in here for at least another hour, do you have I.D. We can't just let anyone in."

Machat paused a second, unsure of what to say, until he went completely against what he had previously said and, after pulling out his silenced pistol, shot down the unaware, unshielded mercenaries with two swift shots of his quick trigger finger. Connor gave him a look and in reply he said, "What? It was silenced. Nobody heared." He then went to the access panel and opened the door. We stepped into a gloomy corridor, dragging the two corpses with us. Along the corridor were many doors. "This is where the cells are," Machat informed us. "Most slaves are in the factory but there should be some here. Joel, start on the right, Connor on the left. Check all the cells." He then grabbed a key card from one of dead mercs, and threw it to me. "That should open the doors with no problem." I took hold of it and left the two of them. I counted a dozen doors until I reached the end of the corridor. There was nothing significant about it, just a blank wall, so I started opening the first door. With a swipe of the key card, the red access light turned green and it the cell door opened to reveal a dingy room. It was for one person but there were two sets of double bunks on opposite sides. They didn't seem very sturdy and had very thin covers, but they were the only thing in the cell apart from a single bucket positioned in the corner, from which came a horrible stench.

Obviously nobody inhabited this particular cell so I stepped back and closed the door. Moving on, I went over to the next door and opened it. Inside greeted me with familiar sight. Except, there lying on one of the bunks, was a thin curled up girl. She was still, but I could she was breathing but could not see her face as it was covered by her hands. Her dirty blonde hair lay in clumps upon her shoulders and, as I approached her, she stirred. Her arms slowly moved down to reveal her identity and Death's words made sense as they echoed in my head.

_YOU ARE NOT ALONE._

"Oh my god," I voiced out loud. Even in the rags that she was wearing, and with her dirty, bruised skin, there was no doubt. I knew who this was and it brought back memories of my previous life. "Sarah."

* * *

**Dum dum duuuum. **

**I managed to reach the 4,000 word mark in this chapter so it's the biggest yet. I was seriously considering splitting it into two chapters but, no. **

**Anyway, I hope you like the twist. I did have it planned since early on and was glad to reach this point. I'll be back next chapter for more!**


	16. The Friendship

Chapter 16: The Friendship

"Sarah, it's alright. You're safe now." I tried to calm her down as she recoiled in her bed, writhing to get away from my outstretched hand.

"Please don't hurt me again," she screamed at me with a raspy, broken, hoarse voice caused by her constant crying. Her eyes glanced at me for a second, shiny bright with wet tears, then they covered up again by her arms. "Please just leave me alone," she said more softly then scurried away to the opposite corner, crouching with her back to me.

What the fuck was she doing here? She died. I mourned her. I moved on. Now I've died and find that's she's in the same bloody universe. Why would Death do this? She's one of the sweetest, most innocent people I know. She doesn't deserve this. She needs someone who knows her to help. She needs me. I then approached her and also crouched down, getting to the same level as her. "Sarah, listen to me. I'm not one of them. I want to help." She just ignored me. "I know that you're scared. I know how you got here. You're a long way from home aren't you?" She stopped shivering and sniffling, turning her head slightly and being more attentive. "I know who you are. I knew you before you died."

That definitely made her interested and she turned around slowly, squinting through her tears. "Who are you?" I hated seeing her like this. She looked different from when I last saw her and her face was thinner, with a starved to it, but it still didn't remove the beauty of her face that I remembered, even with her cheeks glowing red and hot. She slowly, unsurely, brushed the golden hair from her eyes as I removed my helmet. I placed it on the ground and looked at her, while she stared back with wide eyes. "Joel." I then didn't expect the following response she gave me. "No. Fuck. Just fuck off. Just leave me alone." She stood up and walked to the other side of the room, hands clawing through her hair. "This isn't real. You can't be here. None of this should be real. I shouldn't be here. Looks what it's done. I need to get out." She took a step towards the open door then stopped, hesitating whether or not to leave. "But they'll hurt me." Sarah then looked back at me. "Just get the fuck out of my head. I don't need this."

It became obvious to me now that she thought I was a figment of her imagination. I role that I wasn't used to and wasn't sure of what to do to make her see the truth. I walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, expecting a reaction but not receiving one. "Listen to me Sarah. I know you must be frightened and confused as hell, but this is real and I'm real. I'm here to get you out of here and protect you." I was thinking about it though, Sarah would never have played Mass Effect, so why the fuck would she be chosen to be taken to this universe. She must be scared out of her wits. But, then again, she must've been here for about two months seeming as that's how long ago she 'died'. She must have suffered so much.

"How can I believe you?" she wiped a tear from her eyes then took a hold of my hand, looking down at our bond. "I want to. But they'll hurt me again if I leave."

"How did the door open?" I asked her, trying to make her believe me. "You can't imagine that." I then stepped out of the cell, into the corridor, and held up my hand gesturing for her to take hold of me. "You have to trust me, Sarah. Two months ago you died in a car crash. A couple of weeks ago the same happened to me. It's not fair that you're here but I can help find safety."

To my surprise, she moved past my outstretched arm and embraced me in a tight hug. I was scared that I might hurt her, she seemed so fragile. Not that she was small but because she felt so thin. "I watched my mum die." She buried her face in my shoulder, ignoring the armour. "And it hurt so much. Then I woke up in darkness. I was here and they hurt me. What is this place, Joel?" she looked up at me.

"I'll have to explain later."

"Joel? You finished yet?" I heard Connor call down the corridor to me, and footsteps approaching. "We haven't found anyone yet, have you? Who's that? You find a slave?"

He had spotted Sarah but, before he got near, I whispered her quickly, "Listen to me Sarah. They don't know either of us come from another universe and it's best that they don't for now. You need to pretend that you don't know me. Okay?" She nodded and, wiping the tears from her eyes, it looked like she understood the situation. I then turned to Connor who was now just a few steps from us. "This is Sarah. She was alone in her cell and I haven't had time to check the others."

"Hi," the Irishman said to Sarah. "Are you hurt or anything?" She shook her head in reply. "Do you know if there are any other slaves in the cells at the moment?"

She shook her head again then said, "No. They're all in the factory. A few of the men…kept me for…other things." I could, not that I wanted to, imagine what the Blue Suns might've done to, with, Sarah. "And there were the ones with four eyes. What are they?" She looked at me and I realised that she must have no idea about the Mass Effect universe including the different species.

It was Connor who replied simply, "Batarians?"

"That's what the others called them, yes."

"Why didn't you know about the batarians? Where were you before the batarians took you?" Connor's question put Sarah in a difficult situation and I had no idea how she might get out of it, and I couldn't help her.

"I…uh…can't remember. There was a crash. Um…I was in a car and it crashed. I woke up here. There's nothing more than that." I'm so glad that she didn't say something out of the ordinary. It could have been a disaster when she said car, but at least there are skycars.

"That's interesting," commented Connor. "Look, we better go. Machat went outside on lookout and we just got a update from Paleote that him and Talyon have found one D'Tok brother, Barkat, but the other was never here in the first place. They're in a position to assassinate him a minute after someone gives the order which Teiran will once we find the other slaves. Sarah, you stay behind us, alright love. If anything happens get in cover till one of us finds you. Okay? Come on."

He led us out of the dark cells, one of my arms were around Sarah to reassure her, and into the well-lit corridor. Machat approached us with his helmet off, causing Sarah to recoil in fear. "Who's this?" he said with a mumble. "Was she the only one in the cells?"

"Don't worry. He's not going to hurt you," I said to Sarah and then directed to Machat, "This is Sarah. She was hurt by the Blue Suns and isn't used to seeing batarian so she's really scared. It's nothing personal."

"Okay, I don't mean to be scary or anything. Some of my species don't understand what they should do with their lives so end up terrifying people for money. Unfortunately it's the majority of us but, believe me, we're not all bad." I tried to imagine being Machat. Not all batarians are bad, but that seems to be the way that the whole species is portrayed and there were many that fit into the violent stereotype. "Is everyone ready to go? We're not that far away from the refinery." We walked back the way we first came but instead turned a different corner, heading into the centre of the whole complex. We approached a door without any disturbances and Machat said, "Stay crouched down. This door leads to a balcony overlooking the refinery. Stay out of sight and we can figure out the best plan of action." He then went through the door and we entered slowly, keeping low.

We were in a large, warehouse looking room about ten feet above the floor and, once I had peered over the railings of the secluded balcony that we were on, I witnessed the sight of many, at least fifty, slaves working. They were wearing similar dark rags to Sarah, and were working various large, nearly steam-punk looking, machines which were making a fair bit of noise. I would have no idea how to work them so I was glad that I wasn't down there, plus I could see one particular slave, a human male as most of them seemed to be human, that was being beaten without mercy by a Blue Sun. Talking about the mercenaries, there only seemed to be fifteen or so in the large room that I could count. Most were posted around the sides, while there were four patrolling through the refinery, giving a shout or a punch to a slave every now and again. "Are you alright?" I asked Sarah, who was crouched next to me. She nodded and, for the first time, smiled. It was good to know that she felt better now.

"Tell Talyon and Paleote that they can kill D'Tor," Machat ordered Connor who did as told immediately. But, a minute later, an alarm went off, sounding loud across the whole facility and accompanied with flashing red lights.

"They said something went wrong," Connor informed us. "They got D'Tok but he set off the alarm. We have to get out of here now before someone finds us." The guards all left the refinery, leaving the slaves in disarray and confusion. Behind them, the doors all closed and locked, including our exit.

"Fuck!" shouted Machat. To make matters worse, vents in the walls opened, emitting a barely visible gas. "I'll get this door open. Just stay put. Our helmet filters will protect us from the gas."

"That's not the problem though," I interjected. "What about Sarah and the slaves?" I wasn't going to let her die now.

"Don't worry," said Connor. "Talyon said it's not poisonous. But it is flammable. We have two minutes until a single flame ignites the whole room. No pressure Machat."

I could see the batarian working furiously with his omni-tools hacking module. The slaves meanwhile were banging at the four doors on their level, scared of what might happen soon. "Can Talyon or Paleote not try to stop the system?"

"No," replied Connor blankly. "They need a password that only D'Tok knew. They can't do anything." Then he added, to increase to the pressure, "Ten seconds left."

I was hugging Sarah who was clinging back tightly, and I was about to close my eyes to embrace my end but Machat shouted, "Got it!" The door rightly opened and we rushed through. Machat was last to go and, as I threw Sarah forward and shielded her body with mine, the batarian was at the back of the group as the explosion happened and I saw only fire through the doorway as I dove to the floor.

My ears rung and my vision blurred. But I was still breathing. Looking around at the others on the floor as I recovered, Sarah was in front of me, appearing like she was unharmed and it was the same with Connor, who lay beside me. "Are you alright?" I asked them.

I received a nod from the two of them but Connor added, "But it doesn't look like Machat is."

I looked back at the batatrian, who lay splayed out on the floor with burns that had torn off part of the back of his armour and horribly injured his left leg, exposing burnt flesh. "Shit," I said. "Machat. Are you okay?"

He stirred, trying to get up, but failing and falling flat on his face. "It bloody hurts," he managed to say.

"_Joel, come in. What's your situation?" _It was Teiran calling me on the radio. In the background I could hear many gunshots.

"There was an explosion," I explained to him while Connor listened to the conversation intently. "It was set of by D'Tok before Paleote and Talyon killed him. All the slaves are dead apart from one we have with us and, to make matters worse, Machat is seriously injured. It doesn't look like he can walk."

"_Try and get out of the building. Find us on the roof. Paleote and Talyon are working on a way out for us. We're taking fire but the situation isn't too bad. There are a couple of gunships we can use to get away from the facility. It doesn't look like they know you're actually here and the way you entered is clear, so use that."_

"Okay. Got it." I hung up on him and explained to Connor, "We can exit through the door we entered."

"Right," he replied. "I'll carry Machat. His legs completely mauled." He crouched down by the batarian who growled at him but otherwise didn't complain as Connor pulled him up and slung him over his shoulder. "You lead the way Joel. It sounds like most of the mercs will be distracted by everyone else."

"Stay close to me," I told Sarah and I pulled out my Locust, leading the group down the corridor with Connor bringing up the rear, pistol equipped in his free hand. I followed the route back from when we first entered the base. "Is he going to be okay?"

Connor answered, "Yeah. I've applied some medi-gel to soften the pain so he won't die. But you can't grow back half a leg and a foot. I doubt he'll be able to walk without cybernetics. It looks like he's still conscious which is a good sign."

"Yes I am," mumbled Machat. "But it hurts. A lot."

"Good," I said. "I think we're nearly out."

We rounded a corner and were confronted by two Blue Suns, brandishing their Avengers. "Stop there. Drop your weapons!" one of them barked at us but, before I could stop her, Sarah sprinted at them. She grabbed ones gun, slamming it into the owners face then, after kicking the other in the stomach so he doubled over. While both of them were distracted by the sudden attack, she then shot the gun twice, killing both of them.

"What was that?" I asked her; taken aback by her sudden action.

"I…uh…remember doing some fight classes and it seemed instinctive," she spoke quietly again after her moment.

"It's good you're remembering more," commented Connor. "You saved us a lot of time as well."

"Let's go," I said. "We're definitely going the right way." I had recognised the path and we stood before a door, the muffled sound of battle seeped through. I pressed on the holo-pad and the door slid open, revealing our ears to the repetitive sound of gunshots. Right in front of us was the whole rest of our squad, all crouched behind the vents that lined the wide roof and, to our right, was at least two dozen Blue Suns. Both factions were exchanging fire with the green forest as the backdrop. I ran into the drizzling rain and knelt behind a vent, keeping my body in the way of fire to protect Sarah who stayed by my side.

I moved up to Teiran, and Connor got into cover on the other side of me, gentling laying Machat on the floor. "Is he okay?" The turian asked.

"He'll survive," answered Connor. "We just need to get him to the Verdun as soon as we can."

"Paleote just radioed saying that their on the way with a gunship," Teiran informed us the fired his assault rifle and emptied a clip out towards the mercenaries. "We're at a bit of a stalemate at the moment. They have us pinned down here but they can't advance with us firing back at them. We just need to hold out for a couple of minutes."

"This is Sarah by the way," I told Teiran who I saw had just noticed her. "She was the only one in the cells and the others were killed in the refinery by the explosion."

"Hi. I'm Teiran, a Spectre and the leader of this squad. We'll get you out of here safe. Okay?" Sarah nodded in reply and again.

"Is he another…alien?" she whispered to me.

"Yes. A turian. I'll explain everything when we get out of here." I shot a few rounds after one lucky mercenary got a headshot on me that harmlessly impacted my shield without any damage. "Just stay down. You don't have any armour or shields. One accurate shot will seriously injure you."

"Okay." She kept her head down as shots whizzed over the cover.

I kept shooting a few shots now and again, but there was rarely anytime to aim due to the constant stream of fire from the Blue Suns. They were all about thirty metres away as well, making using biotics impossible. In the distance I heard the rumblings of an engine and, over the top of higher roof, appeared a Mantis gunship. It flew overhead, its Mass Accelerator Machine gun spraying into the enemy ranks. It dropped down behind us, by the edge of the roof, and came to a stop. I could see Paleote in the cockpit and from the back stepped out Talyon. "Get in!" he shouted.

The squad became mobile, covering each other as we each got into the underbelly of the gunship. Connor went first, carrying Machat with him, and then I guided Sarah out of the danger zone, once again shielding her with my body. One by one everybody entered, having to squeeze into the tight space. "Didn't think to get two?" called out Uvax who was the last to get in. He closed the door as shot bounced of the hulls heavy armour plating. The interior was metallic and black with a few seats on either side and all lit by a dim red light as there were to windows in here.

"This was the only one they had," replied Talyon. "Plus it means that they're not going to be able to chase us.

Teiran opened the door to the cockpit, saying to Paleote, "Take us to where the Verdun dropped us off. That's where I told Thelia to pick us up as well." He then turned round to address us. "As you may have noticed, we've only been able to pick up one slave. Sarah. I'll talk to Paleote and Talyon later," he gave the drell a glare. I'm sure it mustn't have been the pair's fault that they were detected. That might not have even been the whole story, but somehow the D'Tok managed to set off an alarm and an explosion. "Meanwhile, everyone be nice to Sarah till we work out what to do with her.

By now everyone had taken their helmets off, revealing their different alien faces to Sarah who sat by my side, hugging me tight. I whispered to her, "Are you alright?" She nodded. "Do you need any food or water?"

"No. Thank you."

"Okay, we're here," said Teiran as he looked through the cockpit window. "And the Verdun's already here." The Mantis hovered for a second then descended onto the muddy ground and the doors opened. "Everyone out." I led Sarah out, with one arm around her, and followed the squad, including Paleote who had climbed out the cockpit, to the open hanger bay doors.

Sarah halted for a moment in the presence of the impressive ship. "This is the Verdun," I told her. "It's our ship that we can use to get away from here." We then stepped onto the metallic floor into the frigate.

"Is everyone on?" asked Teiran as he examined and counted our ranks. "Good. I need to get up to Thelia but you can all go do whatever you want until I decide what our next plan of action." As everyone dispersed, and the doors closed, Teiran approached me and Sarah who I still had my arm around. "As she seems to be most comfortable around you Joel, do you mind taking care of Sarah and getting her settled on the ship." He seemed to not be talking to her, as he he'd not even spoken directly to her yet, but instead the instructions were only aimed at me. "There's a spare cabin downstairs she can use to sleep or have a shower. There're even some clothes she can wear as well." Then he finally looked at her and said, "Whatever you want. I need to be off. I hope you'll feel comfortable on the Verdun and, when we can, I think we should talk about what to do next." With that he departed.

"So what do you want to do first?" I asked her.

"A shower first," she replied. "And I want to get out of these clothes and wash the smell of that place off me."

I started to lead her to the elevator and asked, "How bad was it there?"

Luckily the lift was free and I stepped into it, pressing the button to go down to the cabins. "We had to work most hours of the day and with a few hours of sleep. Then there was some weird grey food they gave us, and the people in my cell were, restless and strange. When I wasn't in the refinery the guards…abused me and hurt me." Tears started to fall from her eyes again so I embraced her in another hug to calm her.

"It's okay. You're safe here."

She pulled away from me and asked, "How did you get here?"

"The same way as you. Two months after you died in a car crash I was also in a traffic accident and must've died. Then Death talked to me and sent me to this universe."

"You talked to Death? I just woke in the cell. What universe is this anyway?"

"You must've been so scared, and confused. This is all from a videogame - Mass Effect. I've played it a lot and Death told me that, when enough people recognize a made up idea and world, it is created just like a parallel universe." I had tried to remember as much as I could from my first meeting with Death before the elevator door opened.

I stepped out with Sarah by my side and searched for the spare cabin and, as I did, Teiran's voice came over the loudspeaker. _"As you know, the mission wasn't the most successful. Before we leave the system we'll be bombing the base so make sure you haven't left anything behind because we're not going back." _His attempt at a joke was, let's just say, a failure and maybe a bit unsuitable in a sensitive situation due to all the slaves that died. _"We'll be going straight back to Citadel after all this action to resupply and I need to talk to the Council for orders on our situation They have messaged me saying there is a package they need to give to us. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that is. That is all. Teiran out."_

"This is the spare cabin," I told Sarah after finding the only uninhabited one left. We entered it and I said, "There's a shower in the en-suite through there. It's simple to use and there should be a towel as well. I'm just going to pop over to my cabin and get changed then I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Okay. Thank you," she said before going into the shower, leaving me alone. I rushed over to Connor's and my room and took off my armour as fast as I could then put on some casual clothing before rushing back over to Sarah's room. The water had stopped a I heard Sarah shout out, "Joel? Are there any clothes?"

I suddenly realised that she didn't have any and rushed around looking for some. "Hang on!" I opened the wardrobe, relieved by the sight of some. I pulled out a plain pair of jeans, top and underwear. It looked like it wasn't especially for a girl but was adaptable for the needs of anyone who might want to sleep here. I knocked on the bathroom door and asked, "Is it alright for me to come in?"

"Yeah." I opened the door and Sarah was standing out of the shower with a towel wrapped round her still dripping body.

"Sorry, I'll just leave these here." I dunked the clothes on the floor in a corner and left as quick as I could, trying to make the situation less awkward. A minute later she came out, looking much better now she had been cleaned and put on cleaner, nicer clothes. "Well you look better now," I commented, echoing my thoughts. "How do you feel?"

"Fine. Good. Is there a hair dryer?" I noticed her hair was still soaked, stuck in clumps.

"Yeah, there should be one in the bathroom," I pointed it out to her and came in with her as she turned it on and waved it around head as the hot air blew.

She spoke up over the fairly loud device. "Do you mind explaining all these different aliens?"

"Sure. There's a lot but I'll have a go. Firstly there are krogans. They're the big ones like Uvax in our squad. Try not to upset them because they all like fighting. You'll rarely, if not never, see any female ones and that's the same with batarians who you unfortunately know too well. There are the salarians like Paleote, the drell like Talyon who are lizard like people and turians like Teiran. Then the last that are on our squad is the asari like Raphyria. They're all female but can…mate…with all species including themselves which is a bit weird. But yeah." Sarah had finished drying her hair and I said, "That's a very simple low down and there are still other species that I haven't covered but the ones I have are those that you're most likely going to encounter."

"Well thanks anyway. I'll try to remember that all."

"If you need anything just ask me."

"Thank you," she said again before hugging me.

"I'm getting used to these," I commented.

"I've been alone for two months," she replied. "It's really all I need right now."

"What do want to do now?" We stopped our hug finally.

"Food sounds good."

"Okay, let's go." We got up and I led her to out of the room.

**And that is the end of chapter 16. I've realised that I've started getting chapters out quicker than expected and am writing faster than I thought I might because I'm really enjoying progressing the story. Well that's good for all you isn't it? A chapter on consecutive weeks! Maybe I'll try to keep this up. Maybe…**


	17. The Flight

Chapter 17: The Flight

"Sarah Andrew Miller. And that's definitely you full name?" I was sitting in Teirans office slash cabin with Sarah by my side as the turian asked her questions while also typing away at his computer terminal.

"Yes. It is," she replied.

"It's just that I've searched the extranet and C-Sec files but there are no missing people that match your description and none that could possibly be you." He swung in his chair, facing her straight on. "You are a mystery. Apparently you don't exist. Just like Joel actually!" I smirked slightly at that, glad that Teiran wouldn't work out the truth behind our connection. "I actually have no idea what to do with you really. But I'm sure that once we get to the Citadel, the Council will set up some accommodation for you along with identification and you'll be able to start a whole new life along with protection from people who might want to harm you. The Blue Suns won't dare to chase after you, and I doubt they even know who you are to find you, but just in case, it's better to be safe than sorry."

Sarah looked at me, her eyes showed her worry about the prospect of leaving me and starting a new life in an unknown world, alone and without much guidance. An idea came to my mind which I had previously thought of but had not had the chance to mull it over with Sarah even though it was about her future. "How about she stays on the ship? I don't mean that she has to be part of the squad but, you can ask Connor yourself, I watched her take out two Blue Suns within seconds and without receiving a scratch."

"Is that true?" asked Teiran with a surprised look. I wasn't shocked by the expression on his face as Sarah didn't exactly look like she could take out two full sized men.

"Well…" she thought for a second before replying, "Yes. I mean it wasn't exactly like that…but yes."

"So you've learnt to fight?"

"I do remember doing a bit and that's the same with shooting a gun." I remembered about a year or so ago on a school trip I was in the same group as Sarah when doing air rifle shooting we were the top two scorers. I did manage to beat her by one point but we did have a little argument as to the legitimate shots and what the actual scores were. "Apparently I'm pretty good," she then said.

"Well there is room on the ship and, you're the first to hear this so don't blab, but Machat is not going to be able to go into battle again so it would be good to stay at full strength."

"How is he?" I asked having nearly forgotten about the poor batarian.

"Bexania did the best she could but one of his legs was completely ripped off so it has had to be replaced with bionic one. He'll be able to walk but it would be suicidal for him to be in a fire fight. Machat is still a valuable asset and once he has woken up I'll talk to him about his role on the ship. I was thinking he might be okay with maintaining and improving the squad's equipment and weaponry as he has experience in that field."

There was a knock on the door and I turned round as it slid open to see Bexania. "Hey, Teiran, I just wanted to let you know that Machat is awake and, I don't want to rush you, but he's getting impatient just sitting in bed so you might want to talk to him. Plus he isn't exactly pleased with having a metal leg yet. I told him that it's not exactly ready for him to use it yet but still, I'd appreciate the help. I haven't much experience with grumpy batarians."

"Okay, just give me a second." Bexanis left after Teiran's reply. "Is it alright if I can meet you in the training room in, let's say, ten minutes?"

"Yeah, see you then," I replied. Teiran stood up and went to door, standing by it as Sarah and I exited the room. The turian the walked over to the medical bay and I said, "So should we head down then?"

"Yep. Sure." I led Sarah to the elevator and we waited for it before entering and descending to the bottom floor. Before our previous talk with Teiran, I had helped Sarah find some food and got her settled into life on the Verdun. Although I had worries at first at how she might've reacted around the aliens on the ship, she had actually surprised me by acting comfortably around Teiran. As the elevator got down to the engineering deck, it slowed and the doors slid open. Raphyria and Talyon entered, smiling at the pair of us and being friendly to Sarah in particular. Fortunately these two seemed to be two of the nicest squad members which was fortunate as they were some of the first that Sarah had met properly.

"Hi," greeted Talyon and Raphyria. The drell had his hands behind his back, as he asked, "How are you settling onto the Verdun?" His question was directed towards Sarah.

"Fine thanks," she replied. She had positioned herself in the corner with me next to her.

"We haven't properly been introduced. I'm Talyon and this is Raphyria," the asari said hello appropriately. "We're both heading down to the training room. Am I right when I say that's the way you're both heading?"

"Yeah," I replied. "You'll probably be seeing a lot more of Sarah. We're meeting Teiran in a few minutes and it might be possible for Sarah to become part of the team."

"Connor was saying," started Talyon, "about your, and these are his words, 'crazy skills'."

I looked at Sarah and said, "That's typical Connor." The elevator reached the bottom floor and we got out of it and into the cabin corridor.

"Should we start with a bit of shooting practise?" asked Talyon as he opened the door to the training room which was deserted. "You may as well have a go before Teiran gets here."

"Um, okay," replied Sarah.

I held a pistol out to her once we had reached the firing range and she took it, examining the weapon. "It's got blank rounds actually, for safety, but will still fire just like normal. You're right handed aren't you?" Sarah nodded in response to my question. "Good. So just hold the gun in your right hand and stabilise it with your left. Look how I'm doing it." I demonstrated with another pistol and Sarah watched me, trying to mimic the correct position.

"Is this right?" she asked me, looking for directions.

"Yeah. That's great. Now step towards the edge of the firing range and keep that same grip." I replied and then looked at Talyon who got the message and then proceeded to pressing a button on the small control panel and a cardboard dummy entered the far side in a whirr of the machine. "So flick off the safety by the trigger and then, when you're ready, fire." Sarah switched off the guns safety and I watched her take a breath, line up her shot, squinted through one eye then pull the trigger. There was a bang and peered down range to see a hole in the targets shoulder. "Good shot." I commented.

Sarah surprised when she asked the following question, "Can I go again?"

"Oh, go for it." She then swept the hair from her eyes and continued firing the gun, emptying all shots from the magazine into the target, with two of the eight making holes in its head. "Wow. You're good. I think I'll teach you how to reload next and then we're pretty much done." By now Talyon and Raphyria had left us, instead firing at their own separate targets, but they had seen Sarah's shooting. "There's a small button to release the clip, and then you can put a new one in." I handed her one as I said that. After about a minute and a few attempts she handed successfully reloaded the gun, just as the training room door opened and Teiran stepped in.

"How are you doing?" the turian asked. Before anyone could answer he had approached us and saw the bullet ridden cardboard target. "Did you do that Sarah?"

"Yes," she answered.

"With her first mag," I added.

"Do you mind if I see you in action?" he asked. "I just want to make sure that you don't actually need any training."

Sarah looked at me for guidance and I just nodded, letting her know to do as asked. "Okay," she said before turning back to face the target. She once again proceeded to get into her previous stance and then shot. Once then twice and more until the trigger only clicked and more bullets had found their way into the motionless target. Sarah then looked back at Teiran with raised eyebrows, waiting for his response.

"I have to admit that I'm very impressed."

"Connor certainly didn't exaggerate," commented Talyon. He and Raphyria were now observing the confrontation with keen interest.

"Well," continued Teiran. "I suppose you are welcome to a place on the squad. That is if you still want it of course? It isn't the life for everyone but even if you don't want to take part in the fighting there's still room on the ship for you."

"I don't know what I'd do though. And it seems like I'm alright at it. So if it's okay…that sounds great."

"Of course. You're now an official crew member of the Verdun! I need to head off right now but if you have any questions, do ask me or anyone else. It seems like you've settled in well already though. See you around!"

The turian began to leave but, before he exited, Talyon asked, "How's Machat? I don't imagine he took the news of his disabled future very well."

Teiran turned round to answer, "Uhh…I think your guess would be correct. I've restricted him to the medical bay until he's calmed down. He can't even walk at the moment without crutches because he's missing the lower section of his left leg and his foot has had to been amputated. As you can imagine, being told you won't be able walk properly again must be devastating, especially when Machat enjoys the action of fire fights so much. Once we get to the Citadel we need to get him to a proper hospital so we can fix him up with a cybernetic leg. It'll be more useful for him than spending his life in crutches. They won't enable him to run easily though but there's still a role for him on the ship. You might want to go up and speak with him when you have a spare moment. He might be a bit cold at first, but he needs some company. Okay. I'll see you around." He then left us alone.

I looked back at Raphyria, Talyon and Sarah, voicing my thoughts. "I'm not sure I should speak with Machat. I haven't really spoke to him much so now might not be a good time."

"You might be right," commented Raphyria. "Even on a normal day he's generally quite grumpy."

"Maybe I'll go and see him later," said Talyon. "It'll make the rest of the journey more interesting. There isn't that much to do on this ship."

"Good luck when you decide to talk to him," I said, not wanting to be in Talyon's shoes when he does.

"He saved our lives," said Sarah who hadn't said anything since Teiran left. "I wouldn't have been here if not for him. That's the same for Joel and Connor."

"That's true," I agreed. "And it's a shame that his skills won't be used anymore on the battlefield."

"We've got a while to go till we reach the Citadel anyway," Raphyria said. "There's still a lot of hours left but not much to do. I've got some stuff to do before the Verdun lands so I'll see you. Bye."

"Actually, I think I'll come with you," said Talyon. "I'm fairly hungry and Machat might need the company soon if nobody else decides to see him. I don't him to go crazy and mad," the drell joked before leaving with Raphyria.

"So," I said to Sarah now we were alone. "What to do now?"

She looked at me with pistol in hand and said, "More training?" She cleanly slammed a new thermal clip into the weapon and smiled.

* * *

Just less than an hour later we had both accumulated about fifty empty magazines altogether. Sarah had started trying out the Vindicator semi-automatic rifle, which she had nearly mastered, and I had thrown in a few biotic attacks here and there. "So you woke up in that, what was it…Cerberus…base, and Teiran rescued you. And they gave you these weird magic power things, hoping you would be a weapon for them."

"Yeah, exactly that," I replied. I'd demonstrated my biotics to her, showing off its power to destroy the targets and prowess in battle. During our practise I had described her the way that I'd been taken to this universe and was just finishing off. "Cerberus is a human terrorist group that pretty much want humanity to be the top species. That's their public view though but they're a really big organisation that's very busy." Now I had thought about it, there was no news of Shepherd's death and the Normandy crash yet. But it was coming up soon so Cerberus will be very busy in the near future. "When he talked to me, Death gave me a clue about you being here as well. But, he also said that I was needed."

"What do you think he means by that? Or is Death even a male?"

"Ha. No. I don't know. He's some eternal being or something along those lines. I don't know what he means either."

"Maybe there's something Death needs us to do for him."

"Yes, maybe."

Talyon re-entered the training room, just poking his head in as he called to me, "Hey Joel? Machat said he wants to have a quick word with you. He didn't say what about and I have no idea either, but it's you alone he wants to talk to. I'm going right back up if you want to come with me now. He only said he wants to take a few moments of your time."

"Okay. Sure." I then turned to Sarah after my reply to the drell. "Are you alright if I leave you alone for a few minutes?"

"Yes. Of course," she answered. "I might just stay here for another minute or two after you've left."

"Oh yeah, by the way Sarah," started Talyon. "Teiran said he wants to see you again when you want. He just needs to fix you up with a few things now you're part of the team."

"Right. Let's go then." I followed Talyon out and through the corridor and into the elevator. "So did Machat say anything about what he wants me for?"

"No. Just that he wants to speak to you. Believe me; I've no idea why he'd want to speak to you. No offense of course."

"You're right though. It's definitely an unexpected request from him. But I'll find out now anyway." The elevator and I asked, "He is in the medical bay isn't he?"

"Yes."

"Good. Just checking." I headed straight there, past a couple of turians eating at the dining table, and opened the door to the Verdun's medical bay. "Hey, are you alright?" I asked Machat who was lying in one of the beds, with his head leant back against the wall above the metal headboard. No-one else was in the room which I found surprising. "Where's Bexanis? Surely you shouldn't be left alone in here."

"It didn't really seem like she handled my…ergh…anger very well. So Teiran told her to take a break for now. I'm fine though. You won't have enjoyed it here a couple of hours ago."

I sat on the edge of the bed next to his, trying to avoid staring the lack of a bump where his left leg was under the bed sheets. I was quite glad it was covered up so I didn't have to see the wound. "So you calmed down then. Good good. So Talyon said you wanted to see me. What's this about?"

The batarian slowly pushed himself into a more upright position and replied, "I just wanted to make sure that Sarah is okay. The explosion shook me a little bit and I wasn't really aware of how everyone was doing. Teiran said she's fine but she seems closer to you than anyone else so you must know how she is best."

"Well she's settled in fine and seems to be comfortable living on the ship," I answered his question, thinking that it was a bit of strange one. "You might've heard that she's joined the squad now and will be taking part in combat so, although we've lost you, we gained her so the squad's strength hasn't decreased."

"So she has replaced me?" I could sense a tone of resentment in his deep voice and I'm I became wary of the fact that he was becoming angry. That was until he started laughing. "Don't worry! Connor told me what she's capable of and she would deserve a place here if Teiran has let her. I'm sure she'll do well."

"Why did you even want to know?"

"She was a slave. She won't have forgotten what happened in there. Even if she seems fine, I doubt she isn't really. The memories won't have left her this quick."

"What are you saying then?" I hadn't properly thought about it as she seemed perfectly happy now apart from just a couple of moments, but then Sarah had spent a long time as a slave and she told me what they did to her. "Should I talk to her more?"

"Maybe. But just watch out for her."

"Sure. Of course. You seem to care about her a lot."

"I just want to make sure she's safe," replied the batarian. "You seemed to connect with her well and she trusts you so just protect her when you're together."

"That's what I was planning on doing anyway," I said. Our conversation ended abruptly, leaving the two in silence. I looked around the while thinking of something to say.

The medical bay door slid open and I spun round to see Bexanis enter, holding a clipboard, and greet us. "Oh hi Joel. Are you alright?"

"Fine thanks. Yes."

The female turian approached the desk, placed her clipboard down, and then walked over to us. "If you don't mind, I need to give Machat some medicine."

"Actually I think might leave," I said before looking down at the batarian. "There wasn't anything else you wanted to say to me, was there?"

"No," he grumbled. Bexanis was preparing three different syringes and needles so maybe Machat wasn't looking forward to it.

"Okay. Well, I'll be off then. Bye." I left without another word, trying to avoid another awkward situation.

I wasn't certain what to do now, so I decided to check out how Sarah was doing. I knew I should take Machat's advice and look out for her but I don't think I needed to confront her directly about her. Since I had talked to her about her time as a slave, she had seemed fine to me. Very happy I'd even say. I got into the elevator and Connor rushed in with me just before the doors closed. "Oh shit that was close," he exclaimed. "I would've had to wait like five minutes for the lift to come back up. Where you going?"

"Training room. Probably. I was thinking of talking to Sarah."

"Oh right. It's just I saw her talking with Teiran." The Irishman waited for my response calmly with raised eyebrows and I remembered what Sarah had told me earlier.

"Damn. She did say she was going to see him. Oh well."

"Did I see you talking to Machat?" Connor asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "He wanted to talk to me about Sarah. He wanted to know if she was okay. Which she is, but he still wanted to make sure that I look after her well. Which I thought was a bit weird." I hoped Connor would understand what I was saying.

"I suppose it is. But do you know that he used to be a Blue Sun? So he did some work with the slave trade and, even if it surprising, he's actually not happy about that part of his past and he is disappointed with the negative view of his species. I think he wants to make up for the bad things he has done."

The elevator stopped and we exited. As we walked down the corridor I said, "Thanks for that eye opener. It was very useful. I was thinking I might have a quick sleep before we get to the Citadel."

"Sure," returned Connor. "I'm going to the training room though so I'll see you later."

He departed and I went into our cabin, doing little else before flopping down on the bed and closing my eyes.

* * *

I woke in the dark and got out of bed without hesitating, stumbling and fumbling around the room before finding the light switch. I immediately paused as a loud snore came from behind. Looking around I saw that Connor was in his bed, deep in sleep. It was a miracle that he wasn't awake. I wasn't sure what to do now as only two hours had passed since I fell to sleep and I really wasn't that tired.

I decided to go for a stroll. Maybe a small wander round the ship would be uplifting in some way. But, as I entered the quiet corridor, a single noise interrupted the silence. From the cabin opposite mine, which was Sarah's, the sound of sobbing seeped through the door, barely audible. I hesitated for a moment, considering my options, but knew that there was only one sensible choice. "Sarah? You alright?" I knocked on the door then decided to open it when the crying stopped. The room was flooded with light from the corridor. Sarah was sitting upright in her bed, looking at me with wet eyes and red cheeks. I closed the door behind me and put the light on.

She shifted her body, allowing room for me to sit by her side and, without any word, I sat and put an arm around her. "I couldn't get to sleep," she informed me quietly. "I just get visions of…the past."

"It's okay," I tried to comfort her but didn't have much experience in the field. "They're gone now and they won't hurt you anymore." I stroked her hair as she leant on my shoulder. "How 'bout I stay here, with you, until you fall asleep."

"Okay," she replied. She lay down in a comfortable position on the bed as stroked her hair. In the silence I couldn't tell if she'd fallen asleep yet so I waited, stroking her golden hair. I began to feel drowsy as well and, although thinking of leaving, I stayed where I was as sleep took me.

**Back to the Citadel next chapter but this was more a bit of an interval. It took me a while longer to get this one out, considering my rate with the last few. Christmas has been a time of rest and not doing much so I wasn't writing as much as usual, but I am not low on ideas! Chapter 18 will be coming soon! And, of course, don't shy away from reviewing! I do love me those reviews. **


	18. The Black Armoured Men

**Yay I'm finally back. It took way too long for my liking to complete this chapter thanks to too much other work which is unfortunately more important. I'm just as annoyed about this as you as I love writing and progressing the storyline and it's frustrating when there's no time to do this. I can't see there being much of a change in the near future though.**

**I know you'll want to want to get back to the story so here is chapter 18. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 18: The Black Armoured Men**

"Joel. Do you mind looking after Sarah on the Citadel and taking her to get armour. I know a good place to get some so I'll send the location to you." I was standing in the Verdun by its airlock with Teiran who talking to me. We had recently docked on the Citadel and already about half the crew had left to visit the space station. A few minutes ago I had left Sarah, so she could get ready, had a shower and got changed before coming up here. "I've already set her up with an omni-tool and money. I gave her extra for the armour, and it should be enough for a basic set and helmet. I've got the specifications for what you should get. It's much better quality than your standard military armour but without a large expenditure."

"Yeah, that sounds fine. Where did Machat go? I had noticed that he wasn't in the medical bay when I came up here."

"Connor and Talyon just took him to Huerta Memorial Hospital to get his bionic leg. The operation will take at least six hours so there's plenty of time to do whatever you want here." Raphyria suddenly appeared behind me so I moved to the side and Teiran acknowledged her presence. "Ah. Are you ready to go?"

"That's why I'm here," she replied.

"We're going to get a Mako," informed Teiran. "The Council told me that they'd allow us some extra firepower."

"That sounds very useful," I commented, knowing how well it did for Shepherd when hunting down Saren. "Well, have fun then."

"We will," replied Raphyria.

"We'll see you later Joel," said Teiran. "Thanks for looking after Sarah as well." With that, the two of them left.

"Hey Joel," Sarah had come up behind me to greet me and I turned to face her.

"Hi. I'm meant to take you to get some armour. Are you alright if we go now?" We were both wearing casual clothes but I wasn't expecting to get into a fire fight on the Citadel. I wouldn't, however, take that risk if we were back on Omega. As a safety precaution though, I was carrying my pistol on my belt.

"Sure okay. Should I get a jacket or something? Is it cold out there?" There was something cute and slightly humorous about her inexperience and lack of knowledge.

"No. Don't worry. The Citadel is a space station with a breathable atmosphere and artificial night and day cycles. Well, only the Presidium has that cycle. But no. It's fairly warm so you won't need a jacket." I led Sarah into the airlock, listening to the robotic voice announcing that the decompression process had started. A few moments later the door slid open to show us the Citadel. We stepped out and as I started walking to the elevator, I noticed Sarah was no longer by my side. I looked back to see her staring up at the skybox and the sight of the different wards that were making her just stand there in awe.

"Wow. That's beautiful."

I joined her and stood next to her. "Each of those arms is a ward with their own gravity like the one we're on now. That ring over there is the Presidium."

"That's amazing. Where is the shop that we're going to?" she looked up at me when she had asked the question.

"It's on this ward. It would actually be quickest if we take a cab there. I can call one from over there unless you want to walk. But it'll take at least an hour. These wards are huge."

"No go for it," she said. I walked over to the console to call for a skycar as she asked, "So they have flying cars here as well?" There were streams of skycars flying above us that she would've spotted.

"Yep. Pretty much. Did you not see that we were in a space ship as well?"

"No I did. But I have to say that it's a beautiful ship." As she said that, the cab floated up into and landed by us.

I opened the skycars passenger door and held it open for Sarah who got in first. I followed her, closing it behind me. "Rodam Expeditions please," I gave our destination to the driver, who I saw was a salarian due to his visible head shape.

"No problem," replied the driver straight away. He must've had some GPS-like system which gave him direct routes of travel to any place on the Citadel as he had the X3M back up in the air within seconds and had soon joined the traffic. The name, Rodam Expeditions, was bugging me for the entire journey. It was about five minutes later that we touched down, in Zakera Ward, when I saw the shop that I had the feeling I knew. "Here we are."

"Thanks," I said to the salarian. After opening the door, I got out and then waited for Sarah to do the same. "I been here before," I told her as we walked towards the store. "It's the same location as one of the games. The exact place but a couple years earlier. It's weird. I've sort of already shopped here!"

"That's really strange," Sarah agreed just as we entered the shop.

Behind the counter stood a turian. There were no other customers we grabbed his attention straight away. "Ah, humans! How can I help you? There is plenty to choose from if you're travelling somewhere dangerous or need protection." I remembered how he could become visibly angry with Shepherd if the commander hadn't chosen to save the council, but then again, the turian was the complete opposite if Shepherd had saved them which, luckily for us, she did.

"I'm looking for a set of Phoenix armour for my friend here," I told him after looking at my omni-tool for the specifications that Teiran had given me. "I'm not sure about size though."

"Of course. There's a measuring room just through that door. Come back in here when you've got your size and I'll get the armour."

"We'll be right back," I told him. Following his instructions, I went through the back door with Sarah and found an appropriate looking cubicle. "It says just stand in there with the door closed and press the button to get measured." I read the instructions on a small plaque.

"I'll do just that then," said Sarah before entering the cubicle and closing the door. About twenty seconds later she came back out. "28. That's what the screen had on it so I'm guessing that's my size but I've no idea what measurements they use."

"How did it even measure you," I asked curiously.

"It just looked like lasers," she informed me. "It was nice and quick."

We went back out and Sarah told the turian shopkeeper her size. "Here you are then," he said as he pulled out an armour case from under the counter. "Try this on. There's a changing room back where you just came from and, if it fits, you can customise the colour of it."

In five minutes Sarah had put on the armour and shown it to me. "What do you think?" she asked me. "And do you really think I can have it in any colour?"

"It looks great. What colour were you thinking of?"

"I was thinking pink and with some flowery patterns around the shoulders." She looked at me with a serious face, but wasn't able to contain her laughter. "Sorry." She said once she'd calmed down. "But seriously though. What's a good colour?"

"Well you won't want something bright. That'll just draw too much attention to you in a fight or if you're trying to be more stealthy. So anything that's dark probably. I'm not too experienced in this field. Actually though, in the game, one person had white armour with pink as a secondary colour," I informed Sarah as I remembered about Ashley. "But that doesn't seem to be the most sensible of choices. It's completely up to you. It's your armour."

"I think I'll go for a dark blue," she considered. "I can probably guess how to work this machine." She was looking at the armour customisation module. It was a simple touchscreen which you could use to change the appearance of a set of virtual armour, which was then transferred onto the real thing. "I'll be back in a second then." Sarah returned to the changing room to take the armour back off and returned shortly after. She placed the armour into another device that was connected to the screen and quickly figured out how to work it. "I think that's it." She then received her armour and examined it. "Do you like it?" she asked as she looked from me to it.

"Yeah. It's great. I don't think there's anything else we need from this shop so, if it's alright with you, we can go and pay for it."

"Okay." She put the armour back in its case as fortunately, this process used very quick drying paint.

In about a minute we had gone back into the main area of the shop and had been given the price by the turian shopkeeper. "Teiran gave you the money on your omni-tool," I informed Sarah. Then, with a more subtle, quiet voice, I said, "Do you know how to use your omni-tool?"

"Yes," she replied. "Just about. I had a look at it earlier to see how it worked, and I think I've mastered it." She opened the said tool and examined it, searching for the right application before saying, "Done it!"

"Thank you very much miss," said the turian. "Have a good day! And if you ever need more supplies, you know where to go."

"Thanks. Bye," I replied and left the shop with Sarah, who had the fairly heavy looking armour case with her. "Would you like me to carry that?" I asked, thinking that it looked like she was struggling a bit.

"Umm," she thought for a second. "If you don't mind. You look a lot stronger than me. And there's no doubt you are." She passed me the case and I slung it over my shoulder, being careful not to hit her with it.

"I'm not sure about you, but I don't fancy carrying this around for the next few hours. Because I'm guessing you'd like to spend a bit of time on the Citadel and see the sites." I wanted to give Sarah the opportunity to experience this universe and not just stay on the ship for most of the time. "We can get a cab back to the Verdun and drop this off," I indicated to the armour, "Then I'll find a place that we can eat."

"That sounds like a plan," Sarah agreed with me. Soon I had called another cab from the rapid transit and within five minutes we were back in the Verdun.

"Hi Joel,"Thelia greeted me as Sarah and I entered through the airlock.

"Thelia. Hi," I replied the asked, "Have you met Sarah yet?"

"No. It's nice to meet you," the asari said then the two of them shook hands.

"We're just coming back here for a couple of minutes to drop her armour off," I filled her in. "Are you going to take the opportunity of shore leave? Surely you wouldn't want to stay here for too long." It was partially a joke but also a serious question.

"Actually I was just heading down to my room for a moment now but then I've planned to have dinner with Talyon. He's nearly finished taking care of Machat." It seemed like this meal would be between more than friends and more of a date, but I hadn't noticed any special connection with Talyon and Thelia. "If you want, I could take the armour with me. Sarah should have her own locker down in engineering."

"Well if you wouldn't mind that'll be great." I replied, thankful of her offer and the thought of not having to ride the elevator. I passed the armour over to her and managed to get a hold of it, though I did feel a bit guilty as it looked like it was heavier than she had expected. "Well, have a good time with Talyon," I decided to say.

"Thank you. Enjoy your time on the Citadel," Thelia said to Sarah. "Bye!"

"She seems nice," commented Sarah. "What does she do?"

"She's the pilot," I told her. "I can't imagine how difficult it could be to fly a ship of this size. It must take a lot of skill. But, anyway, should we head off. I think we should go to a restaurant on the Presidium. It's a beautiful area of the Citadel you should like."

Roughly ten minutes later we were standing in an open area of the Presidium, overlooking the tranquil blue lake. "You were right," started Sarah. "It is beautiful." She then scanned the area and spotted something. "What is that?" she quietly asked me and subtly gestured over to an alien of which she hadn't seen before.

I saw what she had seen and informed her, "That is an elcor. They talk in a low monotone voice and actually speak out loud their feelings in the middle of a conversation because other species can't easily interpret the slight changes in their facial expression."

Looking around the area that we were in, I noticed that, even after the big battle that had happened fairly recently, life for the citizens of the Citadel seemed to be pretty normal. Actually, there seemed to be no debris at all here. But I suppose that would make sense as the Presidium would be a priority place to get cleared up.

"We're not too far from the restaurant now," I pointed out as we started walking again. However, before we were able to make any sort of progress, a call came from my omni-tool and I felt obliged to answer it. "Hello? Who's this?"

"_Hey Joel, it's Talyon."_ The drell's voice seemed quite anxious and like he wanted to hurry to get his message across. _"I'm with Thelia here but we've got a problem. It's Connor. He's disappeared. Literally. He isn't responding to any message and we were going to meet him briefly in the wards but, when we got there, we couldn't find him."_

"You do know Connor, don't you?" I asked rhetorically. "I'm sure that he's just got distracted by something shiny. I doubt that you need to worry." At this moment Sarah had caught on of what the situation was and gave a concerned look.

"_No no. It's more than that. I found a duct rat that had seen Connor be taken by a group of men. They threw him in a skycar and drove off, but not before giving a duct rat a message to pass on to us. And I think you'll be interested to know that they were all wearing black armour. This can't be coincidence can it?"_

"Do you think it was the same people that attacked Cerberus? They wanted to take me away! Shit. Have you told Teiran yet?"

"_No. He's still busy at the moment and I didn't want to disturb him. But is it alright if you come over here and we'll investigate. I'll inform Teiran in the meantime. I'll send you our co-ordinates."_

"We'll be right there," I said before hanging up then turning to Sarah and asking, "Is it alright to skip the meal?"

"That's fine. This seems important."

"It is," I replied.

So ten minutes later we were in the Wards, after taking another cab to Thelia and Talyon's location. The two aliens approached Sarah and me, the drell speaking first to greet us. "Hey. It's good you're here." The usually easy-going drell had a concerned frown on his face.

"What did the duct rat say?" I asked him, desperate to know as much as I could as soon as possible.

"He was only about ten years old and human, but he didn't seem too phased by the experience of witnessing a kidnapping. But he said that the black armoured men just gave him a location. They apparently took Connor to a warehouse on Zakera Ward."

"But do you think they're the same black armoured men?" I was desperate to know who they were and what they wanted.

"Definitely," replied Talyon. "They asked for you specifically. They want you to come alone or not at all. If not, they say we'll never see Connor again. It's all rather dramatic."

"They really want me don't they? What are we going to do though?"

"I told Teiran everything," said Thelia. "He says don't do anything until he gets here."

"But Connor is in danger," I reminded them all. "The longer we wait the more harm that'll come to Connor."

"But they'll take you Joel!" exclaimed Sarah who seemed to care a lot about me. "And you don't know that these people will keep their word. We can't risk losing both Connor and you."

"But on the other hand," said Talyon. "They don't care about Connor. They only want you so they have no reason to harm him."

"Why would these people want you?" asked Sarah.

"I guess that it's something to do with the implants Cerberus gave me. They probably want to experiment on me or something which I don't really fancy. But we have no knowledge of them at all. We don't know how many of them there are and we don't even have a name."

"All we know is that they're not friendly," commented Talyon.

"Teiran just messaged me," said Thelia. "He'll meet us near the warehouse with Raphyria in fifteen minutes. They've just received the Mako and its being transported to the Verdun. He says that we can think of a plan together and they've brought over all your armour and equipment. I think that's not really my place if there turns out to be any fighting. I'll just go back to the ship. Good luck though." I think that she was disappointed about not having the dinner with Talyon, but I watched the drell hug the asari before she left.

"Let's go save Connor then," said Talyon.

"We haven't been able to see anyone around the warehouse," Teiran informed us. It had taken five minutes for us to meet up with Teiran and Raphyria who had scanned the area around the warehouse from around a corner out of sight from the entrance. "There are only those two guards by the door but nobody else."

"Surely the five of us can take them then," suggested Sarah and showing her inexperience in these situations. "There's a reason why we've got this armour with us." We had yet to put the armour on, only Teiran and Raphyria had, so any accurate gunshot would be lethal to me.

"But then we might lose Connor forever," replied Teiran. "It's obvious that we have to do some sort of negotiation."

"It's a trade," I pointed out. "They want me for him. Connor is of no use for these people but I am." I looked at each of them before saying, "You might want to come with me to talk to them. But I doubt they'll let you in." Without warning them, I stepped out a started walking purposely towards the two black armoured men. Their posture changed from relaxed to alert, but they didn't seem aggressive.

"Only you can come in," said one of them. He was human but both their faces were covered behind their helmets. Flanking me were Sarah and Talyon on my left, and Teiran and Raphria on the right. I was glad of the support, but not so much about what the possible future events might be.

"Where's Connor?" I had to ask them.

"We'll tell your friends when you come with us," he answered me.

"You can't go Joel," said Sarah, unnerved by the thought of losing a friend.

"Just save Connor," I ordered them all. "I'll be fine." I wasn't exactly scared of going with these people, it was more the fact that I didn't know what they'd do to me. But, I decided to allow them to take me and stepped towards them.

"Go inside," ordered the guard and I entered into the gloomy warehouse before taking one look back to Sarah, who I hadn't wanted to leave, and the squad.

"We'll look for you Joel!" called Teiran.

The dark interior engulfed me and I listened to the remaining sound from outside. There was shouting, from Teiran, and what I guessed were Sarah's screams. I hoped they would soon find Connor and, contrary to what the others might think, I believed that these people would carry out the deal and return Connor. They weren't simply a rabble of low life criminals, but a well-co-ordinated organisation that just need me for whatever reason. I was both anxious and scared to find out that reason. I had a feeling that I might be learning this soon.

Although I had first been stumbling around in the dark, knocking over a crate or two, my eyes had now adjusted to the lack of light and I had managed to find a clear path, lit by a few lamps hanging from the ceiling. I emerged from the piles of crates into a clear space of floor, maybe twenty five metres squared, and I could sense and see the shadows of about half a dozen figures. Without warning, bright white light from above blinded my eyes and it took at least a minute to be able to focus on the people near me.

There were more of the men in black armour. Six to be precise. The shape of their armour showed that they were of different species. There was one turian, and a salarian. The rest I couldn't tell but they all had their helmets on. They were also wielding assault rifles or submachine guns, but they were being loosely held and the barrels were pointed to the ground. The men had fanned out around me, but the way I had come wasn't covered. Of course, we all knew that I wouldn't dare run now. None of them talked and neither did I, thinking that it might annoy them and hurt my chances of survival, so I just stood in silence.

I examined my surroundings as I waited. The crates were all unmarked. They were big and piled high, preventing me from seeing the walls of the warehouse but not the ceiling which was at least 100 feet high. There was complete silence as nobody stirred from their stationary position.

"Joel we need to go." I spun my head round to see another black armoured human step out from between the crates as he talked. Unlike the others he had his helmet off showing his scarred, pale face and short, ginger hair. "We need to talk somewhere secure. There's no time to hang around now."

"It doesn't look like you're giving me much of a choice," I replied. "But why should I come with you? You people seem well informed. You must know that I could take all of you out with my biotics." I wasn't so sure that I could actually do that, but I didn't want to seem weak.

"We do know that you have biotics," said the ginger man. "But I think you'll want to come with us when you find out who we are and what we know."

"Then tell me."

I saw the turian receive a message on the radio, then took a few steps over to the ginger and whisper something in his ear. The human nodded and replied, "Cover the entrances and secure the perimeters. Robinson, come with me." The black armoured men dispersed, only leaving me with the ginger and another human, presumably Robinson. "Joel we have to go now."

"Who's attacking you?" I asked. "Because I'm sure that I'd rather go with them than you."

"I doubt it because it's Cerberus. And we don't want to hurt you in any way."

"What do you want then?" I asked, getting fed up on all the secrecy and anxious for the truth.

"We know where you're from," replied the ginger. "You're in the wrong universe."


	19. The Questions

"What's your name?" I asked the ginger, taken aback by his sudden reveal of the truth about me.

"Geoff. Please Joel. You have to come with us. We'll let you go as soon as we can. If you leave us now, Cerberus will take you again. We don't plan to hurt you in any way, unlike them."

"This must be a joke. You have some unreliable informants," I tried to say, finding it difficult to believe that he knew my secret. "Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?"

"Yes," replied Geoff bluntly. "But that doesn't stop it from being the truth." Gunfire sounded off in the distance, echoing through the large, open warehouse and making it difficult to pinpoint the location of the source. "Please. This isn't just for the good of us or you."

I thought for a minute, considering the options. If I leave now, Cerberus will take me. If I'm incredibly lucky, I'll escape. But maybe that's not what I want. These people know about more than I thought anyone should, so I think this intrigue and curiosity had pushed me towards one obvious choice. "Okay. Fine."

"Robinson, protect the rear," ordered Geoff who then approached me. "Thank you, Joel." More gunfire followed that. "Come with me." He led me into the maze of crates, with Robinson behind us keeping a watchful eye, and the sound of guns firing forcing me to be on high alert as well. "My men should keep the perimeter secure while we get out of here and then I can pull them out, so hopefully we shouldn't run into any trouble."

"Do you fight a lot with Cerberus then?" I was curious as to how the rivalry between the two organisations first came about.

"Not until recently," responded Geoff. "When we happened to cross them a few times we discovered that there was a shared interest with you, but for different reasons. You're their run away experiment, but for us you have answers we desperately need. Our whole group is founded on the truth, built by it. We know that you are aware of what the truth is."

I was starting to get confused now. By asking questions, I haven't found many answers but I have unlocked more mysteries. It wasn't helping that Geoff was pretty much talking in riddles. "So what is this 'truth' then?"

"Death." Before Geoff could continue, an explosion sounded from above, somewhere near the ceiling. "Shit."

"Have you got men up there," I asked, wondering about his distress.

"No. It must be Cerberus operatives coming in through the roof." Geoff then proceeded to talking to someone on the radio, looking for an update to our situation. "There are enemies coming in through the roof, have you got that covered?" He waited a listened to the response, interpreting the information. "Hold your position then, but send a squad in here. Okay?"

Robinson asked, "What's happening." He had a gruff voice, comparable to that of a krogan.

"The perimeter's is secure but Cerberus is persistent and there's a squad in the warehouse with us. There is backup coming but we should keep moving."

"What about C-Sec?" I asked. "Surely they would have been informed about a big fire fight happening in the wards."

"They'll have to get through Cerberus and us before getting to you," commented Robinson confidently.

"And I'm sure you'll want answers Joel," said Geoff. "So you need to stay with us."

"Can I have a gun then," I questioned him. "If Cerberus attacks I don't want to be completely defenceless and reliant on the two of you."

"You have biotics," Robinson told me, expecting that to be the end of it, but Geoff spoke up first, demonstrating his authority.

"No no. You can. I know Cerberus want you alive, but we can't risk it," I had a feeling that by carrying out this act of kindness, Geoff hoped that I might trust him because of it. In a way, I did. He seemed sincere and there weren't any lies that I could see with him. The ginger then gave Robinson a look, and he apparently got the message, handing me his pistol.

"Thank you," I said.

"We should better move fast," Geoff hurried us. "The Cerberus operatives must be moving towards us as quick as they can, and they probably have some tracking devices." We then moved out, rushing through the crates in a brisk walk, checking the corners as we did.

The sound of guns reached our ears again, but nearer than before. "That's in the warehouse," I observed and it looked like the others had the same conclusion.

Geoff received another call on the radio and took the message. "There's bad news and good news. Our backup is distracted with fighting Cerberus but in turn it means that they are no longer all chasing us. But some of them have broken off from the main squad and are nearby."

"So what do we do?" I asked, not taking a fancy to having to fight now.

"Run." Geoff plainly put the answer before sprinting off with me close behind and Robinson following at the back. I had no idea as to where the enemy was, or how far we were from the exit. I did however, find out the first point when, stepping out from behind a crate, a man clad in Cerberus armour appeared in front of us. But he had misjudged his positioning and the speed we were travelling at as, before he could properly raise his gun, Geoff had smashed him onto the floor and showed off his reactions by grabbing the gun and shooting the operative in between the eyes, piercing the helmet. "There must be more nearby."

He had spoken too soon and what he said was the truth because, just as he had finished speaking, another enemy had appeared from the shadows of the looming crate piles. The operative rushed towards me but, as I prepared myself, Robinson had swiped the attacker's legs I they fell to the floor. My protector had emerged after firing a single shot. "There'll be more," he said. "Hopefully not many."

"They don't seem to be much of a problem for the two of you," I exclaimed, after having witnessed them take out our two enemies with ease. "Do we really need to worry about them?"

"It might look like they're just slowing us down," Geoff pointed out. "But the longer we take, the longer my men have to hold out for and the more they're going to get injured."

"Well lead on then," I told him. "How far have we got to going?"

"Not long," answered Geoff. "Only about a minute if we keep up the same pace."

"This is a bloody big warehouse," I commented. "What's in these crates anyway?"

"Everything and anything," replied Geoff. "Anybody can pay to store something here for as long as they like. So if anything gets damaged the owner will be in for a surprise."

"They're getting nearer," Robinson rushed us and reminded me not to ask any more questions until we were out of the danger zone. And so we carried on running without any more interruptions, at least not until we suddenly exited the crate labyrinth. There was a huge expanse of empty, unused dull floor with a stretch of about a hundred metres to a small door, standing alone against the tall wall of the warehouse.

"Hold up," Geoff stopped us before we could take a step out of the cover of the crates. "We have a skycar not far outside of the door. But the Cerberus men must be somewhere nearby, and I have a feeling that they might just be watching the exit."

"So what do we do?" I asked him, hoping he would have a sensible plan of action.

"I'll just have a look to see if I'm right." The ginger slowly took a few steps towards the edge of the opening, keeping right to the edge of the crates. Poking his head round the corner, Geoff's suspicion was proven correct as he was greeted by a hail of bullets, impacted the crates harmlessly. "Shit." He quickly pulled back into safety. "I'm glad they don't have a sniper."

"Where are they?" I questioned him, not wanting to risk losing my head as well.

"Too close for comfort. There are maybe six of them position around a few crates."

"Where's your backup?"

"I don't know."

"You two wait here," ordered Robinson after not having spoken for a while. "Keep them distracted and I'll take them by surprise."

"If that's okay with you," answered Geoff in response and before I could say anything, Robinson had gone. "Joel. Can you just shot a few shots round the corner now and again just to let them know we're still here? I just need to radio someone."

I did as I was told, hoping it would allow me to safely get out of here. Shuffling towards the edge of the crates, I dared not stick my head out of cover. Instead I blind fired a few shots of my pistol and immediately more shots were returned from the Cerberus operatives. "So is Robinson going to take them all out on his own?" I asked, not completely certain about the current plan.

"That's what I hope," replied Geoff who had just got off the radio. "Our backup is too far away to help us so I told them to withdraw. But, Robinson will tell me when he starts the attack and we can begin firing at them while they're distracted. We're good enough to take them down."

"I hope so," I said being not so confident. "The two of you seem to be able to handle yourselves well."

"We have to be," Geoff got back on the radio again, presumably to talk to Robinson. "Okay Joel, let's go. We can move a bit closer to them through the crates, but don't get too near."

"Do you not realise that I have no armour?" I had a feeling of vulnerability, knowing that there was no protection from enemy bullets.

Geoff simply replied, "You have your biotics, don't you?"

"Oh," I thought for a second. "Sure."

"Come up here with me," Geoff told me. "If we climb up onto these crates we might have a better advantage." He led me up a few smaller crates and onto the tops of the taller ones, giving us a great view of the whole warehouse from our viewpoint. "There are the Cerberus operatives," he pointed out our enemy and I followed the line of his finger. We were closer to them than I had thought, maybe just a dozen metres, so I wasn't worrying about missing every shot with the pistol I had. Plus, I hadn't really worked on the accuracy of my biotic attacks at longer ranges.

"Are we going to do this anytime soon?"

"That's a change in your attitude," commented Geoff. "One moment." He went back on to his radio for another time, "Robinson. Please fire when you're ready."

Almost immediately after, a shot rang out close to our position but from the other side of the Cerberus men and was followed by a cry from them. Geoff then started shooting his assault rifle, using short controlled bursts. I saw the Cerberus operatives fall into chaos, looking for the hidden enemy. When they finally spotted us and started returning fire, I got a nudge from Geoff and so began to shoot, taking my time to take aim down my sights and place my shots. I threw up a biotic barrier when I had run out of ammo, just remembering that I didn't have a spare magazine.

A few seconds later all the noise had subsided and I lowered my defences. "Are you okay Robinson?" asked Geoff who was once again on the radio. "Come find us then."

I followed him down to the floor of the warehouse and through the crates to the clearing by the door where Robinson met us. "We got them good," he said. "Are we done here?"

"One second," said Geoff who then proceeded to speak to his troops on the radio. "How long have we got? Okay. Time to go mobile." He then finished issuing orders and turned back to us. "Cerberus are pulling back and C-Sec will be swarming this area in a couple of minutes. Follow me."

They led me into the alley outside of the warehouse, and parked snuggly in between two walls was a black, unmarked skycar. "This area is clear," said Robinson. "Hurry though." He opened the passenger door and gestured for me to get in, which I did. He and Geoff proceeded to enter the front seats, with Robinson controlling the vehicle. The car was soon off the ground and I shifted my body into a comfortable position as we flew away from the site of battle.

"How do you know about Death?" I asked the two of them.

"We know a lot," Geoff put simply. "When we let you leave you will return to the frigate, the Verdun. You're under command of the turian Spectre, Teiran Ravierex, who is tasked with combating the mercenary problem in the Terminus System. Is he alright? It's just that he was very close to his brother Sartak, wasn't he?" I was silent with wonder, amazed at how he knew about all this and how much more information he had. "The squad he leads includes you, Machat Dak'Tar, Urdnot Uvax, Raphyria K'Loete, Talyon Minos, Paleote Loketon and Connor O'Neil. And, of course, I shouldn't forget about your friend, Sarah, who actually got here before you. "

"So why haven't you made contact with her then? Why just me?"

"It's because Death doesn't need her," replied Geoff causing me more intrigue. "Death was only testing its capabilities. It needed someone, you, in this universe but it had to make sure that its manipulative powers were strong enough for this."

"So what does Death want me then? It has been very mysterious and vague as to the reasons why I'm here."

"Don't be surprised when I say we don't know."

"Actually that is surprising," I said. "You seem to know a lot. And you still haven't told me how you know all this. But I'm guessing that you won't be telling me that."

"You're right," said Robinson. Nobody said anything else but as I feeling my stomach lurch as the skycar descended and I saw the high rise buildings of the wards rise up around us when I looked out of the window. Robinson flew the vehicle into a shelter on a rooftop so as to prevent overhead traffic from spotting it. My two escorts exited the car and I followed suit, hurrying to keep up with them as they threw open a door with stairs leading down into the building. By the looks of it, we were in an apartment block with obvious signs of abandonment due to its run-down look. There was proof of this in the gloom due to no lights, cracks in the walls and a thick layer of dust covering every surface, prone to being unsettled by the slightest disturbance.

As we turned a corner we were faced with the sight of the Citadel and streams of skycars no more than ten metres from us. This was because the corridor came to an abrupt halt, looking like the whole section of the building had been ripped out. Scattered around the floor and with one piece the size of a small car, were parts of a strange dark metallic material. Before I could question what it was, Geoff spoke first. "Say hello to the remains of Sovereign. Hopefully we won't be disrupted by any scavengers, but Robinson do you mind taking some. It might be quite interesting to research more into these Reapers."

"So you believe in Reapers as well," I said, not being surprised by this fact.

"Of course," Geoff returned. He led me through a door into a dingy, undamaged room while Robinson stayed outside. "Now I need to ask you some questions. You can leave when you want but I'll let you have your own queries when I've done."

"Okay okay." I knew that I wanted to find out as much as I could, and that wouldn't happen without my cooperation with them. "What do you want to know?"

"Well firstly, did Death communicate with you?"

"Yes he… it?... did."

"So what did it say, and how? We're not in a rush or anything so take your time. I need as many details as I can."

I paused for a second, listening to the sound of the skycars outside. "Well. I was in complete darkness. It definitely wasn't even a physical place or location. Death talked to me somehow. I never saw it. But I could feel something nearby and it was cold. But Death's voice was loud. I couldn't tell if it was just in my head, or if it came from the gloom."

"Just like the others…" Geoff murmured to himself, causing me to look at him, distracted by what he had said.

"What? There are others?"

"No. No," Geoff quickly replied and he tried to move on the discussion but I knew I wouldn't forget what he said. "What did Death say?"

"Mostly just a speech on parallel universes and who Death was. But then Death said that I was needed in this world and pretty much left me at that. But I can probably assume that you already knew all of that."

"You are right."

"But Death contacted me another time."

As I said that, Geoff suddenly looked like he was paying more attention. "Oh really. When was this?"

"I was pretty much killed during the Battle of the Citadel. Well I was. Death said that I was killed. It went on to say that I would find out why I was needed in time. Other than that, Death didn't say much else and I can't remember the exact words." Before I continued, I decided to be more assertive and challenging towards Geoff. "But I'm guessing you know from others that Death is very vague and mysterious. How much of this stuff I'm telling you is actually new information?"

Geoff stared at me, thinking of the best response. "Listen, Joel. What we know doesn't concern you. How we get our information doesn't concern you."

"That's great. But why do you do what you do? What good is going to come out of you trying to fight Death? Is that even what you want to do? How will this benefit anyone?"

"We are untouched by Death. So we can fight it." Geoff had a sour sound to his voice unlike any other time before. "Death cannot just kill me or my people with direct influence like how it transported you to this universe." There was a lull in the conversation, or you might call it an argument, until Geoff continued speaking. "Well I think we should better end here, before C-Sec has a chance of tracing us." I knew that wasn't the reason for him wanting to end this discussion, he was getting annoyed because of all my questions. Plus, like I had told him, most of what I what was telling him just confirmed what his organisation already knew. "You'll want to call a cab. But wait a minute or two after we've gone." Without any proper farewell he started to walk to the door, but not before I rushed in front of him to block his path.

"Surely the world needs Death," I said. "If you want to get rid of Death, surely that'll mess everything up."

I didn't expect Geoff to react the way which he did. So, when he violently pushed me to the side and out of his way. I completely lost my balance and was thrown onto the floor. "Whoa, what the hell?" I yelled at him as he rushed out the door. "Shit." I was taken by surprise by Geoff's sudden aggression so I didn't know how to react. By the time I had got back to my feet and out the door, he and Robinson had disappeared.

I looked out of the hole in the building, watching the passing traffic and thinking of what to do next. As I did, I also noticed a noticeable decrease in debris, in particular, less of the wrecked parts of Sovereign. I wondered how useful these Reaper parts would be, especially for organisations like Geoff and Robinsons. I decided that the first thing to do would be to call the rest of the squad and meet them back at the Verdun where we would be out of harm's way from some other enemy.

I ended up only radioing Teiran so that he could spread the message. He was confused at first but managed to limit the conversation to a few sentences and telling him that I'd explain face to face, along with asking the turian to make sure everyone knew including Sarah who I knew would need a one on one conversation with me when I'm back.

It didn't take long for a cab and, as I watched the passing rooftops from the backseat, I thought what had happened today and how I would explain it to everyone. I had to speak the truth but not all of it. I could avoid lying and just not tell all of the truth, as long as I could keep the fact about Death and my origin away from their knowledge.

"Mind if I listen to the news?" asked the human driver, breaking my train of thought.

"Uh, no that's fine," I replied. There was some uninteresting drone from a female news reporter with a couple of fairly insignificant stories. But then a few noticeable words stood out above the rest causing me to pay attention.

"…_wreckage of the ship has yet to be discovered. The bodies of 21 crew members, including the commander, have yet to be discovered, yet there is doubt as to if they'll ever be found. This news is surely devastating for the millions who knew the first human Spectre, the hero of the Battle of the Citadel. Rescue ships are returning the few survivors of the Normandy, but our thoughts go out to those that lost their lives."_


	20. The Return

"Did you hear the news?"

"Yeah! I mean, shit, I can't believe it."

"So the geth did it?"

"Killed Shepherd? Yes, apparently."

That was just a snippet of one conversation I happened to hear as I made my way through the crowds of the Citadel towards the elevator that would take me back to the Verdun. I hadn't told the cab driver to drop me off right at the docks so I had more time to think of what I would tell the squad. In fact, I'd rather not have to talk to them all.

It was surprising how fast the news of the Collector attack on the Normandy had spread, although everyone thought it was the geth. That would be a much less terrible truth. And actually, in proof of this, as I rode the elevator up, the news story played again with no difference to the one I'd originally heard. I was wondering how long it would take for the surviving crew members to return to the Citadel because I'm sure they'd come here.

I reached my level and the doors slide open and I saw, stood in front of the Verdun, Teiran and Sarah. I started too strolled over to the two of them but Sarah ran at me and pulled me into a tight hug. I was shocked at first but then even more so when she broke away and slapped me across the face, leaving burning sensation on my cheek. "You idiot!" she coarsely screamed at me. "Why did you have to go? There would have been another way to get Connor back." She seemed to have calmed down now.

"Is he alright?" I asked the question, directing it more at Teiran who might have a better hold of the situation and had been patiently waiting. "Is Connor alright?"

"He's fine," replied the turian. "He hadn't been harmed and, frankly, it's a miracle you haven't been hurt either."

"That's because they didn't want to," I answered him truthfully. "It's a long story."

"I sent all the crew onto the ship. I thought you wouldn't like to be crowded and have a lot of questions thrown at you."

"Yeah, thanks. I'd prefer not to have to repeat the story."

"Sarah is it alright if you just wait inside?" Teiran asked her, but we knew it was more of an order than a question. "We shouldn't be too long but I'd prefer it to be just Joel and me."

"I'll tell you everything later," I promised her and I think she caught on that I would be spilling more information to her than Teiran. Sarah left without a word, entering the airlock and going out of sight.

Teiran gestured me to follow him as he moved further up the gangway, away from the airlock and allowing us to admire the view of the Citadel from our vantage point. "I don't want to keep you long," started the turian, "but I'd just like to know who these people are and, well, as much as you know about this all. Somehow these people are following our every move. All because of you."

I prepared my story and started to explain, using as much truth as I could without revealing too much. However, lies were necessary in the circumstances. "They don't want me dead as far as know. They want to know more about the modifications I have courtesy of Cerberus. I think they're actually rivals or at least not on friendly terms with each other."

"I informed C-Sec immediately about these people but they know very little about the black armoured men. There's no way of stopping them from travelling because we don't have any faces or names and it's likely they'll be using a private dock and ships."

"I know names of two of them but it would never be any use. There was Geoff who seemed to be the leader of that particular group. He had ginger hair but, apart from that, there were no more significant features apart from a few scars on his face. I'm surprised he allowed me to see his face. The other was called Robinson but I didn't see his face so that won't be of any use."

"Well, it's better than nothing but it wouldn't be surprising if they were using fake names." I watched Teiran think for a moment, watching the distant skycars, before turning to me and asking, "So why are you here now? Did they just let you go?"

"Um…yes. Pretty much." I paused for a moment before continuing. "They took me to another location, just an abandoned apartment building, then the two of them, it was only Geoff and Robinson at this point, asked me a few questions about what Cerberus had done to me."

"Do you know why they didn't take you with them? I'm sure it wouldn't have been difficult to go unnoticed."

"I don't know. Maybe they learnt all they wanted to know."

"Maybe…" pondered Teiran. "I hope that, by leaving the Citadel, we won't run into any more trouble with these people. And if there's no more they want from you then maybe we won't run into them again."

"Are there any more questions you wanted to ask?"

"Not that I can think of. Unless you can think of anything important I should know."

I thought for a second but nothing came to mind. "No. Sorry."

"Feel free to settle down on the ship. We'll leave within the hour. I'll tell everyone where we're headed soon after that."

"Okay. I'll see you later then." I started to walk away from Teiran but glanced back before entering the airlock of the Verdun to see him standing alone, watching over the wards of the Citadel. He disappeared from view as I stepped inside and waited for the decontamination.

The first person I planned to see and talk to was Connor, shortly followed by Sarah. I was starting to feel the effects of a busy day being spent kidnapped and now I wanted to limit the amount of people I had to talk to before falling into my bed. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and, just as I exited the airlock, I bumped into Thelia. The asari seemed as startled as I did; so much so that I wouldn't have been surprised if she had fallen over. Fortunately though, she didn't. "Oh, my god. Sorry Joel. I didn't expect you!" She had her hand clutching her chest, as if I had given her a heart attack.

"Well, I'm sorry if I scared you." I wasn't sure exactly what to do. I even considered just saying goodbye then rushing past her, but that would be too rude and Thelia didn't deserve that.

"How are you?" she asked me. "I mean, surely it must have been quite an experience – being kidnapped and everything."

"Yes it was 'quite an experience'," I decided to quote her under exaggeration of my previous predicament. "Look, I'd like to talk but it's been a long day, surely you can understand."

"Oh, right. Sorry if I've kept you." The Thelia looked to be a bit disappointed; maybe she was looking forward to talking. "I passed Sarah on the way up here and I know I'm no expert but she seemed quite upset."

"I was actually about to go speak to her. Do you know where she is?" I considered that there might be a possibility of Thelia becoming jealous, which I hoped she wouldn't. Of course, there was only a slim chance of this and maybe I was flattering myself too much which I thought was greatly out of my character.

"I passed her on the way up here actually," she started. "She was taking the elevator so I'm guessing that she is just going to her room."

"Okay, thanks Thelia." I turned to leave but had second thoughts before walking away and rotated to face her and say, "I'm sorry if I've come across as rude but right now's not a great time to talk. It would be great if we could talk sometime, just get to know the person flying this ship."

"Oh, sure, that sounds great! Whenever is a good time for you. And, don't worry, I should have known that you wouldn't want to stop and chat." She looked at the ground as if she had been put down in some way by her own words.

"Don't worry about it. You were being very kind." We stood for a second in silence before I decided to finally say, "Well, I'll see you around Thelia."

"Bye," the asari replied as I walked away, down the corridor into the CIC. In the centre the holographic image of the Verdun flashed to the galaxy map as I walked past it, carefully avoiding two turians who rushed by me and heading in the other direction. I noticed various crewmembers giving me the same look which I guess could only be that of pity as there is no chance that they might be envious of me. Perhaps I was thinking too much but I managed to descend the staircase and get to the lift without any further confrontations and embraced the solitude as the doors closed, leaving me alone.

The machinery whirring was the only sound I could hear after I pressed the button leading me to the crew quarters where I hoped to find Sarah. The doors opened and I made my way to her cabin. Knocking on the door I listened for any sounds of life inside and was taken by surprise when I looked round and Sarah had appeared behind me. "Hi," she greeted me quietly. "I was just in the training room shooting stuff and...yeah." She looked away briefly, as if to avoid eye contact with me.

"I was just coming down to talk to you," I hadn't really planned out what I was going to say and so wasn't really sure how best to proceed. At that moment however, Raphyria came out of the training room and, after giving me a quick smile of acknowledgement, squeezed past the two of us and entered the elevator which allowed me to continue our conversation. "Do you mind if we go inside?"

Sarah didn't reply but I moved out of the way to allow her to me into her room. I decided to stay stand while she sat down on the edge of her bed, looking down at the floor. Her long, blonde hair fell in front of her face and concealed it from my view. I decided to break the silence first as it didn't look like she was going to start talking anytime soon. "What's the matter Sarah? I didn't expect you to act like you did outside the Verdun, and I'm sure it caused confusion with Teiran. We'll be lucky if he doesn't ask questions about us." I kept a calm voice, knowing there probably wouldn't be any need for concern.

"People know we're close," Sarah replied quickly.

"But why were you so upset?" I asked her, still wanting to know.

"Because…" she started to explain and I waited for her to continue. "I thought I was alone in this alien world! And until you found me I was bloody scared!" She was on the verge of tears but I was unsure whether to comfort her. She carried on with a more calmed voice. "I thought I'd be fine if you were with me. But then you left to nearly get yourself killed for someone else and I couldn't think of life without you, alone." I rushed over her to give her a big hug which she returned. I had no idea she felt so upset about me leaving to save Connor.

"I'm sorry," I told her. "I'm not having anything else to do with those people anymore. They are my enemies and I will not let them affect our lives in any way."

"What did they want?" Sarah asked, pulling away to look me in the eyes.

"They…er…know about Death."

"What?" She was of course surprised and she had the right to be.

"I didn't tell Teiran any of this, of course. But these people seem to know everything! As in they've named every member of our squad and they know that the both of us aren't from this world."

"How?"

"I don't know but I wish I did, and I want to know as much as you do but they're not letting any secrets out."

"This is all so messed up," Sarah commented, standing up and running her hands through her hair. "I mean seriously! All this fucking stuff with parallel universes and death and bloody aliens! I shouldn't even be here. We shouldn't even be here."

"I know. But as far as I know there isn't any way back."

"The black armoured men must know something about how Death teleports someone from one world to another."

"By killing them," I said.

"Well, yeah," agreed Sarah who thought for a minute before carrying on. "But I died."

"I went to your memorial at school. Along with most of our year group."

"People can't come back from the dead," she said that and the two of us realized the truth.

"I was going to die but Death brought me back," I tried to deny the fact that we could never go back home.

"But not months after you died!"

"So…what? Do we just decide that there isn't going to be a way home. Should we just get used to life here?"

"You seem to have got used to it," replied Sarah, who sat back down next to me. "You knew all about this world before you even arrived here because it was a stupid videogame. This all seems crazy to me!"

"I'm sorry you had to be dragged into this. I wish we were back home." Silence interrupted our conversation and I heard Sarah sniff. I couldn't think of anything else to say so the current state of the room stayed as it was.

"Next time, I'm coming with you," Sarah told me and, after a moment to think through and understand what she meant.

I slowly nodded and replied, "Okay."

"_This is Teiran. Everybody is now on board so we will be departing shortly. I'd like to speak with the combat squad in the conference room. And…uh…keep up the good work everyone." _Teiran's speech through the ship-wide communication system didn't exactly end in much of a flourish and I had to think to myself that the turian didn't appear as a charismatic leader unlike Shepherd.

"It's best that we go then," I said to Sarah who agreed and we made our way to the lift. When the doors opened we were greeted with an unfamiliar face.

"Hey!" the human called to us. He had scraggly, unkempt hair hanging loosely over his ears and trailing down the back of his neck. His small, pointed head sat upon a fragile frame of his skinny body and, as I Sarah and stepped in, I noticed he was nearly a foot shorter than me. "What floor you guys going to?" he asked with his finger hovering over the buttons.

"The CIC," I told him.

"Of course," he pressed the corresponding button and looked back at me. "You must be Joel," he said confidently. "And you are…Sarah," he hesitated slightly. "Although I didn't think I would forget your face after you were pointed out to me."

I was surprised by his forward approach to charm Sarah and I wasn't sure how she might feel about it, especially because he wasn't somebody I'd call particularly handsome but then I wouldn't say I was a great judge of who women found attractive. His rat-like features didn't seem to be his best quality.

"Oh…er…thanks," replied Sarah. I could see her cheeks flush, obviously uncomfortable in this situation, or maybe just no used to it.

"My name is Ray, at your service." He took hold of Sarah's hand and gave it a chivalrous kiss. Sarah smiled awkwardly in response. "If you need anything then please come to me."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked Ray turning his attention away from Sarah.

"I'm an engineer and mostly do maintenance on the ship but I'm also working with Machat so if you need any help with your weapons or armour I am always able." I considered what Machat must have thought of this apparent apprenticeship and I didn't know why I would go to Ray before going to Machat, even if the latter was less friendly.

"I haven't seen you around before. Have you only just joined the crew?" I threw him more questions, eager to learn more about him.

"Yes actually. With the Mako Teiran has recently acquired there needed to be someone who knew enough about the vehicle to keep it working. I'm not the only one capable of maintaining the Mako but I'm certainly the most experienced."

"Really?" I wondered. "How so?"

"I spent a few years with the Systems Alliance doing pretty much the same stuff that I'm going to be doing on the Verdun." The elevator finally came to halt and the doors opened to the CIC as Ryan finished his sentence. "I'll catch you guys later."

"Bye," Sarah replied with a smile and I just nodded in acknowledge as the two of us walked out in the direction of the conference. Before we turned the corner and were out of view, I noticed Ray was still in the elevator when the doors closed, apparently only coming up with us to chat during the ride.

"That was weird," I commented.

"What do mean?" asked Sarah.

"Ray," I replied. "It's just he seemed overly friend and just a bit strange."

"Why?" she questioned me again but I only responded with a shrug as tried to hide what I could only describe as jealousy. "Because he kissed me on the hand?" she said almost with a laugh, looking at me while tried to avoid her glare.

At this point we had arrived at the conference room and the conversation halted abruptly as I led the way in. Sitting amongst the circle of chairs already was Talyon, Paleote and Machat. The batarian got up and approached me. "Joel, how are you?"

"Fine thanks," I replied rather unambiguously, wondering what he wanted.

"Teiran says you're to be part of the infiltration team in future missions. That means me upgrading your armour so, when you have a spare moment, I need you to try it on and check that everything is in order."

"Alright. Sure," I said without much else to say and Machat returned to his seat as more squad members filtered in through the door. "Let's take a seat," I told Sarah and we positioned ourselves in the ring while Teiran stood in front of us all, ready to speak.

The buzz of conversation around the room stopped immediately when Teiran cleared his throat. "I want to make this brief. We are pulling as many resources as we can into finding the other D'Tor brother with some, but not enough, help from the Council," his voice had a tinge of annoyance about it. I knew how helpful the Council could be in supporting their assets, but I was surprised at the apparent lack of aid that the turian Spectre had received. "Fortunately we have found one solid lead to follow."

Teiran brought up an image of a planet on the screen for everyone to see before proceeding. "This is Joab. It's in the Enoch System, Rosetta Nebula. There have been reports of Blue Suns activity here and a few months ago the D'Tors apparently spent some time working from one of the mercenary outposts. It's likely there will be some data on what they were doing and hopefully even where this batarian is hiding."

"So what's the plan?" asked Paleote, using Teiran's break as an opportunity to speak.

"It's possible that the Blue Sun complex will have defences - anti-air most likely. Even if there are not, we cannot take the risk. There is only going to one team on the ground with the objective of infiltrating the base. It will be led by Talyon and he'll be aided by Paleote, Joel and Connor. You four will find a back door, get inside, and download as much information as you can before getting out – preferably without being detected. I'd like this to be as quick and as clean as it can be." The turian paused and looked over at Uvax who had an unsettled look on his face and started to speak.

"So we won't be using the Mako yet?" The krogan looked around the room as if to get acknowledgement from the others but received nothing obvious. "I was looking forward to using its cannon."

"Just because we have it, doesn't mean we have to use it," replied Teiran. "But I assure you you'll get the first turn in the Mako. Anyway, I'll inform Talyon of the details but otherwise you're all dismissed." Talyon stayed behind with Teiran as everyone else left the conference room.

I parted from Sarah as she left to get some food and I was intercepted by Raphyria. "Hey Joel," she greeted me. "Have you got a minute?"

"Sure," I told the asari truthfully. "What is it?"

"I thought you might want to test out your biotics. And I mean properly. See how far you can push yourself."

"It sounds like you have something planned," I deduced. "I'm right behind you. Lead the way."

I followed Raphyria to the training room – where else? – and watched as she hauled over an large woven sack stuffed full of weight. As she slugged it down onto the ground I had to admire her strength but I thought she must've used her biotics in some way to help. "This is roughly the same weight as an adult krogan. I want you to try and lift it up, purely using biotics."

"Is that all?" I asked her.

"Yes."

"Okay then." I knew how heavy krogans were, but I didn't know how strong my powers are. There was nothing to think about really so I activated my biotics. Raphyria had stepped away from the weight and now stood just a few metres from me, waiting patiently. Raising my arms, I directed my power to the weight. It glowed blue just as I did but, no matter how much I concentrated, it didn't move, stubbornly staying stationary.

I relaxed, stopping the flow of energy, and looked at Raphyria who just smiled at me and gave a look that said 'What are you waiting for? Try again'. At least, that's what I hoped it meant because that was exactly what I did. The weight was just as persistent as before but so was I. I felt a change to its mass and watched as it started rising, only the smallest height off the ground, before I forced myself to stop and the weight fell to its previous state.

I stood, panting heavily and feeling sweat drip down my neck, as Raphyria walked over to my side. The asari patted me on the back and simply said, "Keep trying," before strolling out of the room.

* * *

**Finally I am back. I know it has been a long time, months even, but time has been difficult to find recently and I doubt that will change any time soon. I hope you can deal with any typos that I've missed. Any way, this is chapter 20. Nothing else to say. Please enjoy the read. **


End file.
